SOCIAL  FORCES 
IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •  BOSTON  •  CHICAGO 
SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


SOCIAL  FORCES 
IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


'by 

aYW.  ^imons 


Nefo  fgotk 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1914 

All  rights  reserved 

BOSTON  COLUTCE  UBRAIVgf 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MAS& 


Copyright,  1911, 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.  Published  October,  1911.  Reprinted 
January,  1912  ;  March,  1913  ;  March,  1914. 


Norfaoott  Press 

J.  S.  CuBhing  Co.  — Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


101860 


TO  MY  WIFE 


MAY  WOOD  SIMONS 

WHOSE  CONTINUOUS  COOPERATION  AND  ADVICE 
AT  ALL  STAGES  OF  THIS  WORK 
MIGHT  WELL  ENTITLE  HER  TO  BE  NAMED 


AS  CO-AUTHOR 


PREFACE 


That  political  struggles  are  based  upon  economic 
interests  is  to-day  disputed  by  few  students  of  society. 
The  attempt  has  been  made  in  this  work  to  trace  the 
various  interests  that  have  arisen  and  struggled  in  each 
social  stage  and  to  determine  the  influence  exercised  by 
these  contending  interests  in  the  creation  of  social  insti¬ 
tutions. 

Back  of  every  political  party  there  has  always  stood 
a  group  or  class  which  expected  to  profit  by  the  activity 
and  the  success  of  that  party.  When  any  party  has  at¬ 
tained  to  power,  it  has  been  because  it  has  tried  to  estab¬ 
lish  institutions  or  to  modify  existing  ones  in  accord  with 
its  interests. 

Changes  in  the  industrial  basis  of  society  —  inven¬ 
tions,  new  processes,  and  combinations  and  methods  of 
producing  and  distributing  goods  —  create  new  interests 
with  new  social  classes  to  represent  them.  These  im¬ 
provements  in  the  technique  of  production  are  the  dy¬ 
namic  element  that  brings  about  what  we  call  progress 
in  society. 

In  this  work  I  have  sought  to  begin  at  the  origin  of  each 
line  of  social  progress.  I  have  first  endeavored  to  de¬ 
scribe  the  steps  in  mechanical  progress,  then  the  social 
classes  brought  into  prominence  by  the  mechanical 
changes,  then  the  struggle  by  which  these  new  classes 

sought  to  gain  social  power,  and,  finally,  the  institutions 

•• 

vu 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


which  were  created  or  the  alterations  made  in  existing 
institutions  as  a  consequence  of  the  struggle,  or  as  a 
result  of  the  victory  of  a  new  class. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  that  these  underlying  social  forces 
are  of  more  importance  than  the  individuals  that  were 
forced  to  the  front  in  the  process  of  these  struggles,  or 
even  than  the  laws  that  were  established  to  record  the 
results  of  the  conflict.  In  short,  I  have  tried  to  describe 
the  dynamics  of  history  rather  than  to  record  the  ac¬ 
complished  facts,  to  answer  the  question,  “Why  did  it 
happen  ?”  as  well  as,  “What  happened  ?” 

An  inquiry  into  causes  is  manifestly  a  greater  task  than 
the  recording  of  accomplished  facts.  It  is  certain  that 
I  have  made  some  mistakes,  probably  a  great  many,  in 
analyzing  the  underlying  forces  of  so  complex  a  thing  as 
American  social  development.  The  finding  of  such  mis¬ 
takes  will  prove  nothing  as  to  the  method  save  that  the 
leisure  of  ten  very  busy  years  in  the  life  of  one  individual 
is  all  too  short  a  time  in  which  to  trace  to  their  origin 
the  multitude  of  forces  that  have  been  operating  in  Amer¬ 
ican  history. 

This  work  has  been  the  more  difficult  since  only  a  few, 
historians,  and  these  only  in  recent  years,  have  given 
any  attention  to  this  viewpoint.  It  was,  therefore, 
necessary  for  me  to  spend  much  time  in  the  study  of 
“original  documents,  ”  —  the  newspapers,  magazines,  and 
pamphlet  literature  of  each  period.  In  these,  rather  than 
in  the  “musty  documents”  of  state,  do  we  find  history 
in  the  making.  Here  we  can  see  the  clash  of  contending 
interests  before  they  are  crystallized  into  laws  and  in¬ 
stitutions. 

I  have  not  sought  after  new  or  bizarre  facts.  I  have 


PREFACE 


IX 


sought  rather  to  understand  the  reasons  for  those  whose 
existence  is  undisputed.  Occasionally  I  have  found 
things  which  seemed  to  be  neglected  in  the  familiar  his¬ 
tories  and  have  stated  these.  In  my  references,  also, 
I  have  tried  to  name  the  most  accessible  works  rather 
than  to  multiply  references  and  strain  after  scholastic 
effect  with  many  citations  of  seldom  used  and  almost 
inaccessible  material. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  stated  that  most  of  this 
work  was  written  before  the  publication  of  the  “Docu¬ 
mentary  History  of  American  Society,”  edited  by  Dr. 
R.  T.  Ely  and  John  R.  Commons  of  the  University  of 
Wisconsin.  Otherwise  I  should  have  made  more  fre¬ 
quent  reference  to  its  pages.  Thanks  to  the  courtesy 
of  these  editors,  however,  I  had  an  opportunity  to  con¬ 
sult  their  notes  and  the  original  publications  upon  which 
that  work  is  based,  and  this  service  is  here  gratefully 
acknowledged. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Conditions  leading  to  Discovery  . 

CHAPTER  II 

Causes  of  Colonization  . 

CHAPTER  III 

What  the  Colonists  found  in  America  . 

CHAPTER  IV 


The  Colonial  Stage 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Growth  of  Solidarity 

CHAPTER  VI 

Causes  of  the  Revolution 

CHAPTER  VII 


The  Revolution  . 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Formation  of  the  Government 


PAGE 

I 


12 


27 


30 


•  •  55 


.  60 


.  .  70 


.  81 


XI 


CONTENTS 


Xll 


CHAPTER  IX 

Industrial  Conditions  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Government  . 


CHAPTER  X 

Rule  of  Commerce  and  Finance 

CHAPTER  XI 

Rule  of  Commerce  and  Frontier  . 

CHAPTER  XII 

The  Westward  March  of  a  People 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Birth  of  the  Factory  System 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Changing  Interests  .... 


CHAPTER  XV 

The  First  Crisis — 1819 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Condition  of  the  Workers  in  the  Childhood  of 
Capitalism . 


PAGE 

IOO 

108 

120 

134 

143 

151 

l6o 

170 


CHAPTER  XVII 

The  First  Labor  Movement — 1824-1836 


.  179 


CONTENTS 


xm 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  Youth  of  Capitalism  — 1830-1850  . 

CHAPTER  XIX 

Why  the  Civil  War  Came  . 

CHAPTER  XX 

The  Crisis  in  the  Chattel  Slave  System 

CHAPTER  XXI 

Rise  of  Northern  Capitalism  . 

CHAPTER  XXII 

The  Armed  Conflict  of  Sectional  Interests 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

Reconstruction . 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


PAGE 

.  I9I 


.  2l6 


.  222 


.  238 


.  264 


285 


Triumph  and  Decadence  of  Capitalism 


•  304 


THE  SOCIAL  FORCES 


OF  THE 

HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

CHAPTER  I 

CONDITIONS  LEADING  TO  DISCOVERY 

American  history  is  usually  made  to  begin  with  the 
voyage  of  Columbus.  Since  all  historical  beginnings  are 
more  or  less  arbitrary,  the  especial  starting  point  is  of 
no  great  importance. 

History,  like  time,  its  principal  element,  has  neither 
beginning  nor  end.  American  social  institutions  have 
their  roots  far  back  in  the  days  to  which  history  does  not 
run.  With  these  origins  the  historian  does  not  deal. 
Here  he  gives  way  to  the  anthropologist,  the  biologist, 
and  the  geologist. 

The  stream  of  social  evolution  which  bore  the  first 
germs  of  American  society  had  its  main  source  in  Europe. 
The  social  genealogy  of  America  goes  back  to  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  from  these  comes  down  through  Germans, 
French,  and  English,  rather  than  through  Mound  Builder, 
Pequod,  and  Iroquois. 

Since  the  voyages  of  Columbus  form  the  first  link  in 
the  chain  that  was  to  bring  these  European  influences 
to  these  shores,  a  knowledge  of  European  society  at  the 


B 


i 


2 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


time  of  those  voyages  and  the  forces  that  led  to  them  is 
essential  to  an  understanding  of  American  history. 

The  “Age  of  Discovery/’  in  which  the  voyages  of 
Columbus  were  the  most  striking,  though  by  no  means 
isolated  events,  came  during  that  period  of  great  social 
transformation  known  as  the  Reformation. 

It  was  the  period  of  the  revival  of  Greek  learning,  of 
the  Decline  of  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Papacy,  of  the 
disappearance  of  feudalism  and  chivalry,  when  towns  and 
nations  were  growing  at  the  expense  of  feudal  tenures, 
and  commerce  and  manufacturing  were  taking  on  new 
forms  and  new  life.  It  was  a  day  not  so  much  of  a  re¬ 
birth  of  old  things  as  of  the  birth  of  those  new  things 
whose  climax,  as  capitalism,  is  the  dominant  feature  of 
the  United  States  to-day.1 

A  number  of  revolutionary  inventions  were  primarily 
responsible  for  these  industrial,  political,  and  religious 
changes.  In  navigation  the  compass  had  but  recently 
made  it  possible  to  guide  a  ship  beyond  the  sight  of  land¬ 
marks.  Without  the  compass  the  Mediterranean  marked 
the  limit  of  navigation.  The  “world”  surrounding  this 
sea  was  the  extent  of  human  knowledge.  Now  the  navi¬ 
gator  could  carry  his  landmarks  with  him,  and  the 
Atlantic  could  be  crossed  with  as  certain  accuracy  as  if 
its  western  shore  were  visible  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules. 

The  astrolabe  now  gave  the  location  of  a  vessel  by  its 
relation  to  astronomical  bodies.  These  inventions  broke 
all  boundaries  to  the  possibility  of  exploration. 

The  invention  of  gunpowder  and  its  application  to  war 
produced  equally  far-reaching  results.  The  first  crude 
firearms  sufficed  to  render  the  humble  foot  soldier  more 

1  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  “  Close  of  the  Middle  Ages,”  pp.  518-519. 


CONDITIONS  LEADING  TO  DISCOVERY 


3 


than  a  match  for  the  best  equipped  and  armored  knight. 
The  feudal  castle  was  not  impregnable  even  to  the  very 
beginnings  of  artillery.  Henceforth  military  power  was 
with  him  who  could  maintain  the  largest  number  of 
soldiers  and  not  to  the  strongest  arm  and  the  most  easily 
defended  castle.  Gunpowder  played  a  decisive  part  in 
military  affairs  at  the  battle  of  Crecy  in  1346  and  the 
siege  of  Constantinople  in  1453. 

To  this  period  also  belong  the  invention  of  printing 
with  movable  type,  and  the  manufacture  of  paper  on  a 
commercial  scale.1 

These  industrial  changes  tended  to  bring  the  merchant 
class  into  a  position  of  social  supremacy.  Hitherto 
public  opinion  had  despised  the  merchant.  He  was  fair 
prey  for  the  ruling  class  of  robber  barons.  Commerce 
was  looked  upon  with  disdain.2  The  passing  merchant 
was  considered  a  legitimate  source  of  revenue  by  the 
nobility  and  their  retainers.  What  would  now  be  classi¬ 
fied  as  highway  robbery  was  by  all  odds  the  most  re¬ 
spectable  industry  in  central  Europe  for  some  centuries 
prior  to  the  discovery  of  America. 

The  ideas  of  the  dominant  industrial  class,  the  landed 
nobility,  became  the  standard  of  morality  as  preached  by 
the  Church. 

“The  Church  was  very  hostile  to  commerce.  The 
theologians  sought  to  show  that  it  was  unproductive, 
and  they  especially  denounced  the  trade  in  money,  con¬ 
fusing  the  taking  of  interest  with  usury.  For  many  of 

1  The  first  French  mill  for  the  manufacture  of  paper  was  erected  in 
1189,  the  first  English  one  in  1330,  and  the  first  German  one  in  1390. 

2  Paul  Risson,  “  Histoire  Sommaire  du  Commerce,”  p.  156;  William 
Clarence  Webster,  “  General  History  of  Commerce,”  p.  96. 


4 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


them,  even  in  the  sixteenth  century,  merchants  were 
liars,  perjurers,  and  thieves.”  1 

The  inventions  to  which  reference  has  been  made  were 
changing  all  this.  They  were  promoting  the  growth  of 
towns,  the  extension  of  trade,  the  knowledge  of,  and 
therefore  the  desire  for,  luxuries  which  only  commerce  and 
the  merchants  could  provide.  The  Crusades  took  many 
of  the  nobility  away,  and  left  their  estates  in  the  hands  of 
merchant  princes  who  had  taken  this  property  as  security 
for  the  expense  of  a  crusading  outfit. 

As  the  merchants  grew  in  power  they  became  respect¬ 
able,  and  commerce  became  a  virtue.  When  merchant 
bankers,  like  the  Fuggers,  were  able  to  dictate  terms  of 
peace  and  war  to  kings  and  emperors,  we  no  longer  hear 
the  merchants  referred  to  as  “liars,  perjurers,  and 
thieves.” 

By  the  fifteenth  century  the  merchants  were  the  ruling 
class  in  Europe.  The  great  commercial  cities  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  of  the  north  of  Europe  were  more 
powerful  than  many  nations,  and  within  these  cities  rich 
merchants  arbitered  the  political  destinies  of  the  known 
world.  Any  merchant-ruled  society  seeks  new  markets. 
The  pressure  for  exploration  at  this  period  was  stronger 
than  perhaps  at  any  period  before  or  since.  Moreover, 
the  whole  commercial  and  social  life  was  being  trans¬ 
formed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  explorations  west¬ 
ward  across  the  Atlantic  in  search  of  Oriental  markets 
almost  inevitable.2 


1  William  Clarence  Webster,  “  General  History  of  Commerce,”  p.  96. 

2  Cheney,  “  European  Background  of  American  History,”  pp.  38-39: 
“  As  Europe  in  the  fifteenth  century  became  more  wealthy  and  more 
familiar  with  the  products  of  the  whole  world,  as  the  nobles  learned  to 


CONDITIONS  LEADING  TO  DISCOVERY 


5 


The  commercial  life  of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
built  up  around  the  trade  with  the  Orient.  From  the 
East  came  spices,  tea,  coffee,  precious  stones,  rare  fab¬ 
rics,  dyes,  perfumes,  drugs,  carpets,  and  rugs,  —  nearly 
all  luxuries  enjoyed  by  the  rich  and  the  powerful  alone. 
In  exchange  for  these  the  West  sent  woolen  goods,  tin, 
copper,  lead,  arsenic,  antimony,  and  other  metals,  and 
especially  gold  and  silver,  of  which  large  amounts  were 
always  flowing  east  to  meet  the  heavy  “ balance  of  trade” 
that  favored  the  Orient.1 

Certain  Mediterranean  cities  became  the  western 
termini  of  the  long  voyage  from  the  East,  and  distribut¬ 
ing  points  for  the  goods  to  the  local  trade  centers.  Fore¬ 
most  among  these  cities  were  Venice  and  Genoa. 

The  stream  of  goods  flowing  between  these  cities  and 
the  Orient  passed  through  Asia  Minor  or  down  the  Red 
Sea,  and  through  the  Arabian  Gulf.  During  the  eleventh, 
twelfth,  and  thirteenth  centuries  the  Moslems  were 
moving  north  out  of  Africa  and  gradually  cutting  these 
trade  routes  one  by  one.  When  in  1453  Constantinople 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Mohammedan  Turks,  the  last 
great  route  to  the  Orient  was  closed  to  European  traders.2 

Europe  did  not  sit  idle  while  the  arteries  of  its  com¬ 
mercial  life  were  being  slowly  strangled.  How  to  find 

demand  more  luxuries,  and  a  wealthy  merchant  class  grew  up  which  was 
able  to  gratify  the  same  tastes  as  the  nobles,  the  demand  of  the  West  upon 
the  East  became  more  insistent  than  ever.  Therefore,  the  men,  the  na¬ 
tion,  the  government  that  could  find  a  new  way  to  the  East  might  claim 
a  trade  of  indefinite  extent  and  extreme  profit.” 

1  Edward  P.  Cheney,  “European  Background  of  American  History,” 
pp.  9-19;  Aloys  Schulte,  “Geschichte  des  Mittelalterlichen  Handel  und 
Verkehr.,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  674-675. 

2  Helmholt,  “History  of  the  World,”  Vol,  VII,  p.  8. 


6 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


or  make  a  trade  route  between  Europe  and  the  Orient 
was  a  question  that  so  dominated  the  life  of  Europe  during 
this  time  as  to  be  the  principal  force  in  molding  its  social 
institutions.  Yet  for  almost  three  centuries  there  was 
scarcely  a  suggestion  of  seeking  a  western  route.  It  is 
doubtful  if  geographical  ignorance  was  even  the  prin¬ 
cipal  cause  for  the  neglect  of  westward  exploration. 
Knowledge  came  when  it  was  needed,  but  no  such  knowl¬ 
edge  was  wanted  during  these  centuries.  Such  a  west¬ 
ward  route  would  have  overthrown  existing  trade  rela¬ 
tions.  Those  who  profited  by  such  relations  were  in 
control  of  society,  and  could  scarcely  be  expected  to 
seek  out  such  a  route.1 

All  efforts  were  directed  toward  driving  back  the  Mos¬ 
lems  and  opening  up  the  eastward  route.  In  this  fact 
we  find  at  least  one  reason  for  those  tremendous  move¬ 
ments  of  armed  men,  —  the  Crusades.  The  accepted 
explanation  of  these  expeditions  is  that  they  were  for  the 
purpose  of  “rescuing  the  holy  sepulchre  from  the  profane 
touch  of  the  infidel.”  It  is  at  least  suggestive  that  cru¬ 
sades  were  not  preached  until  trade  routes  were  endan¬ 
gered,  and  that  they  ceased  when  commerce  underwent 
a  transformation  that  rendered  these  particular  trade 
routes  of  less  importance  to  the  ruling  merchant  class. 

It  was  just  these  changes  that  paved  the  way  for  the 
discovery  of  America. 

Oriental  products,  after  their  arrival  in  Europe,  flowed 
along  certain  well-defined  channels.  For  ages  the  goods 
that  arrived  at  Venice  and  Genoa  had  moved  into  north¬ 
ern  Europe  along  routes  whose  location  had  largely  de- 

1  David  Macpherson,  “History  of  European  Commerce  with  India” 
(London,  1812),  pp.  7-8. 


CONDITIONS  LEADING  TO  DISCOVERY 


7 


termined  the  placing  of  population  and  the  existence  of 
many  social  institutions.  One  set  of  routes  led  north¬ 
ward  across  France.  At  certain  intervals  great  fairs  were 
regularly  held.  These  fairs  performed  the  same  distrib¬ 
uting  service  for  the  commerce  of  the  Middle  Ages  that 
is  performed  by  the  great  cities  of  the  present.  They 
were,  in  fact,  temporary  cities,  dissolving  when  their 
annual  function  had  been  performed. 

Another  trunk  of  this  commerce  led  from  the  terminal 
cities  on  the  Mediterranean  over  the  Alps  and  down  the 
Rhine.  Because  this  route  was  the  feeder  of  the  com¬ 
merce  of  all  northwestern  Europe,  the  Rhine  was  sprinkled 
thickly  with  the  castles  of  the  robber  barons.  The  trav¬ 
eler  who  passes  down  the  Rhine  to-day  can  measure  the 
wealth  of  this  commerce  by  the  ruins  of  the  retreats  of 
the  castled  thieves  who  preyed  upon  it. 

Whatever  disturbed  these  trade  routes  and  centers 
would  change  the  whole  social  structure  resting  upon 
them, —  the  merchants  and  the  barons  who  robbed  them, 
the  fairs  and  the  country  dependent  upon  them. 

This  European  trade  system  was  being  revolutionized 
and  transformed  during  the  years  that  the  Moslems 
were  cutting  the  trade  arteries  that  united  it  with  the 
Orient. 

Improvements  in  navigation  and  shipbuilding  had 
made  the  voyage  around  Gibraltar  cheaper  and  safer 
than  the  overland  trip  across  France  and  Germany.  The 
discovery  of  rich  mineral  deposits  in  Germany  and  Eng¬ 
land,  and  the  development  of  the  English  and  Flemish 
woolen  industry  contributed  still  further  to  this  altera¬ 
tion.1  The  fairs  decayed,  the  castles  on  the  Rhine  grew 
1  Brooks  Adams,  “The  New  Empire,”  pp.  50-55. 


8 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


less  profitable,  and  a  new  group  of  commercial  cities  grew 
on  the  Baltic  and  the  North  seas. 

These  cities  formed  a  confederation  known  as  the 
Hanseatic  League.  Liibeck,  Hamburg,  Bremen,  and 
other  important  trading  centers  entered  into  this  League, 
and  it  grew  in  power  until  it  possessed  its  own  navy, 
enacted  its  own  laws  governing  trade  relations,  made 
treaties,  and  had  many  of  the  attributes  of  a  strong  nation. 
The  very  existence  of  such  a  powerful  federation  com¬ 
posed  of  mercantile  cities  is  significant  of  the  dominant 
position  of  commerce  during  this  period. 

The  Hanseatic  League  soon  entered  into  other  fields 
of  commerce  than  those  depending  upon  the  Oriental 
goods  brought  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  Its 
merchants  not  only  built  up  an  extensive  local  trade 
within  Europe,  but,  more  significant  still  in  connection 
with  the  discovery  of  America,  they  were  developing  a 
caravan  trade  direct  with  the  Orient  by  way  of  an  over¬ 
land  route  through  Russia  and  China. 

The  trade  of  the  Hanseatic  League  and  of  England, 
Holland,  and  western  Europe  in  general  was  essentially 
an  ocean  trade,  developing  shipbuilding,  training  sailors, 
and  offering  prizes  to  navigators.  Extraordinary  efforts 
were  made  to  increase  the  size  of  ships.  Henry  V  of 
England  experimented  in  the  building  of  ships  that  would 
have  been  considered  large  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century.  Boats  of  900  tons  burden  were  built  at 
the  Southampton  docks  in  1449.1 

A  summary  of  the  situation  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  will  show  a  combination  of  forces  making  for 

1  Cunningham,  “Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce,”  Vol.  I, 
P*  413- 


CONDITIONS  LEADING  TO  DISCOVERY 


9 


discovery  and  exploration.  The  merchants  were  the 
ruling  class  in  society.  Commerce  was  built  around  the 
Oriental  trade.  The  principal  routes  of  this  trade  were 
closed.  Within  Europe  trade  centers  and  routes  had 
shifted  to  the  Atlantic  coast.  In  so  shifting  there  had 
come  a  development  of  navigation  and  shipbuilding 
technique  such  as  was  essential  to  any  extensive  voyage 
of  discovery.  Commercial  Europe,  after  facing  for  cen¬ 
turies  toward  the  East  with  its  outposts  on  the  Medi¬ 
terranean,  was  now  looking  out  across  the  Atlantic  from 
the  shore  of  western  Europe. 

This  commercial  world  was  devoting  all  its  energies 
to  the  search  for  a  route  to  Asia,  and  there  was  a  general 
tendency  to  seek  this  via  the  Atlantic.  Portugal  was 
already  creeping  around  Africa.  In  1445  Dinnis  Diaz 
had  sailed  beyond  Cape  Verde,  the  uttermost  point  of  the 
great  westward  bend  of  the  African  continent.  Further 
progress  would  have  been  rapid  had  not  a  new  and 
hitherto  unexpected  obstacle  developed.  The  explorers 
had  reached  the  source  of  slave-supply  and  found  this 
trade  more  profitable  than  hunting  for  trade  routes  to 
India. 

“  Hence  one  expedition  after  another  sent  out  for  pur¬ 
poses  of  discovery,  returned,  bringing  tales  of  failure 
to  reach  further  points  on  the  coast,  but  laden  with  human 
booty  to  be  sold.  .  .  .  Only  the  most  vigorous  pressure, 
exercised  on  the  choicest  spirits  among  the  Portuguese 
captains,  served  to  carry  discoveries  further.” 1 

These  navigators  had  gone  far  enough,  however,  to 
satisfy  the  rulers  of  Portugal  that  India  could  be  reached 

1 E.  P.  Cheney,  “European  Background  of  American  History,” 
pp.  66-70;  “Cambridge  Modern  History,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  7-16. 


IO 


SOCIAL  FORCES  OF  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


around  Africa,  and  they  were  consequently  indifferent 
to  the  plea  of  Columbus.1  The  merchants  of  the  north¬ 
ern  cities  hoped  much  from  the  routes  which  they  could 
control  through  Russia  and  Siberia,  or  along  the  Black 
Sea  to  China,  and  were  likewise  indifferent  to  westward 
sailing  explorations.  The  Italian  merchants  were  trying 
to  bargain  with  the  Moslem  whom  the  Crusades  had  been 
unable  to  crush.  A  western  route  would  only  contribute 
to  their  decline,  and  Columbus  found  no  favor  for  his 
plan  in  his  native  Genoa. 

There  were  three  commercial  nations  on  the  Atlantic 
that  would  profit  directly  by  a  western  route.  Each 
could  hope  to  control  such  a  route,  and  none  saw  any 
possibility  of  similar  advantages  in  any  other  route. 
These  were  England,  Spain,  and  France.  Columbus 
made  simultaneous  application  to  the  first  two.  Eng¬ 
land  was  suspicious  of  his  Spanish  affiliations,  had  plenty 
of  navigators  who  were  beginning  explorations,  and 
therefore  rejected  his  offer,  and  he  sailed  under  a  Spanish 
flag. 

It  was  an  “Age  of  Discovery.”  Explorers  were  push¬ 
ing  out  in  all  directions.  Many  had  already  suggested 
that  the  road  to  India  lay  to  the  west.  Contrary  to 
the  popularly  accepted  legends  that  have  become  em¬ 
balmed  in  textbooks,  the  rotundity  of  the  earth  was  quite 
generally  accepted  in  scientific  circles. 

1  “Cambridge  Modern  History,”  Vol.  I,  p.  21 :  “The  circumnaviga¬ 
tion  of  Africa  was  nearly  accomplished ;  of  this  route  to  the  wealthy  East 
the  Portuguese  would  enjoy  a  practical  monopoly,  and  it  could  be  effec¬ 
tively  defended.  .  .  .  Even  if  the  westward  passage  were  successfully 
accomplished,  it  was  manifest  that  Portugal  would  be  unable  to  monopo¬ 
lize  it,  and  that  discovery  must  ultimately  inure  for  the  benefit  of  the 
stronger  maritime  nations  of  western  Europe.” 


CONDITIONS  LEADING  TO  DISCOVERY 


II 


The  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus  was  but  the 
inevitable  resultant  of  the  operation  of  forces  that  were 
bound  to  send  some  one  across  the  Atlantic  at  about  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 


1 


\ 


CHAPTER  II 

CAUSES  OF  COLONIZATION 

The  movement  of  the  peoples  of  Europe  to  the  New 
World  was  but  a  part  of  the  strange  age-long  migration 
of  the  race  toward  the  setting  sun.  Great  masses  of 
people,  such  as  came  to  America  in  colonial  times,  do 
not  move  without  some  deep,  underlying  cause.  Men 
and  women  do  not  leave  their  homes  and  friends  and 
brave  the  dangers  of  such  an  ocean  voyage  as  was  required 
to  reach  America  before  the  age  of  steam  without  some 
strong,  compelling  force. 

The  greatest  admirer  of  the  New  World  could  hardly 
claim  that  it  possessed  any  powerful  attractions  at  this 
time.  The  best  that  it  could  offer  to  the  first  comers 
was  a  chance  to  struggle  with  the  forces  of  nature  in 
a  state  of  society  but  little  removed  from  savagery.  Yet 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  did  come  to  America 
during  the  three  centuries  after  its  discovery. 

If  there  were  no  powerful  attractions  drawing  them  on, 
the  cause  of  their  migration  must  be  sought  in  the  land 
from  which  they  came. 

It  was  a  time  of  social  upheaval  and  revolution  in 
Europe.  The  merchant  class  was  ruling.  It  was  the 
first  division  of  the  great  capitalist  army,  —  the  advance 
guard,  whose  work  it  was  to  explore  the  world  and  clear 
the  way  for  the  army  of  occupation,  —  the  industrial 
capitalist. 


12 


CAUSES  OF  COLONIZATION 


!3 


The  forces  of  feudalism  were  not  yet  completely  con¬ 
quered,  and  the  new  class  was  compelled  constantly  to 
fight  to  hold  its  position  and  gain  greater  power.  It  was 
a  time  when  nations  and  religions  were  being  born,  and 
when  in  all  fields  of  social  life  mighty  forces  were  strug¬ 
gling  for  the  mastery. 

As  fast  as  the  merchant  or  the  manufacturing  class 
attained  to  power,  its  members  set  about  divorcing  the 
former  serfs  and  peasants  from  the  soil,  and  dissolving 
all  old  feudal  relations,  in  order  that  the  workers  might 
be  “free”  to  hunt  for  employers.  So  it  was  that  in 
nearly  all  the  leading  European  nations  the  people  were 
being  driven  out  of  their  ancient  homes. 

In  England,  for  example,  this  was  a  time  of  great  growth 
in  the  woolen  industry.  Tenants  were  being  driven  off 
the  old  estates  that  great  sheep  pastures  might  be  created. 
Seldom  has  this  process  been  more  vividly  depicted  than 
in  a  famous  extract  from  the  “Utopia”  of  Sir  Thomas 
More.  This  was  written  in  1615,  and  the  author  makes 
one  of  his  characters  say  concerning  the  condition  in 
contemporary  England :  — 

“Your  sheep,  which  are  naturally  mild  and  easily  kept 
in  order,  may  be  said  now  to  devour  men  and  unpeople, 
not  only  villages,  but  towns,  for,  wherever  it  is  found 
that  the  sheep  of  any  soil  yield  a  softer  and  richer  wool 
than  ordinary  there  the  nobility  and  gentry,  and  even 
those  holy  men,  the  abbots,  not  contented  with  the  old 
rents  which  their  farms  yielded,  nor  thinking  it  enough 
that  they,  living  at  their  ease,  do  no  good  to  the  public, 
resolve  to  do  it  hurt  instead  of  good.  They  stop  the 
course  of  agriculture,  destroying  houses  and  towns,  re¬ 
serving  only  the  churches,  and  inclosed  grounds  that  they 


14 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


may  lodge  their  sheep  in  them.  As  if  forests  and  parks 
had  swallowed  up  too  little  of  the  land,  those  worthy 
countrymen  turn  the  best  inhabited  places  into  solitudes ; 
for  when  an  insatiable  wretch,  who  is  a  plague  to  his  coun¬ 
try,  resolves  to  inclose  many  thousands  of  acres  of  land, 
the  owners,  as  well  as  tenants,  are  turned  out  of  their 
possessions,  by  tricks,  or  by  main  force,  or,  being  wearied 
out  with  ill-usage,  they  are  forced  to  sell  them.  By 
which  means  those  miserable  people,  both  men  and 
women,  married  and  unmarried,  old  and  young,  with 
their  poor  but  numerous  families  (since  country  business 
requires  many  hands),  are  all  forced  to  change  their  seats, 
not  knowing  whither  to  go ;  and  they  must  sell  almost  for 
nothing  their  household  stuff,  which  could  not  bring  them 
much  money,  even  though  they  might  stay  for  a  buyer.” 

All  Europe  was  in  a  turmoil.  The  Hundred  Years’ 
War  had  just  ceased  when  Columbus  discovered  America. 
Within  the  next  three  centuries  nearly  every  nation  of 
Europe  was  to  be  engaged  in  armed  conflict,  and  for  much 
of  that  time  war  was  practically  epidemic  on  the  conti¬ 
nent  of  Europe.  Most  of  these  wars  were  waged  nomi¬ 
nally  around  questions  of  religion.  This  was  simply 
because  the  industrial  revolution,  which  placed  the  capi¬ 
talist  class  in  power,  necessarily  had  its  religious  ex¬ 
pression.  The  Reformation,  with  its  individualism  in 
theology,  was  as  perfect  a  reflex  of  capitalism  as  “free 
competition”  and  laissez  faire  in  economics.  “Every 
one  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the  hindmost”  was 
the  motto  in  industry,  economics,  religion,  and  politics, 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  best  authorities  in  each  of 
these  fields  agreed  that  the  majority  of  mankind  is  con¬ 
demned  to  perdition. 


CAUSES  OF  COLONIZATION 


15 


Nowhere  did  these  religious  wars  rage  with  such  fury 
as  in  Germany,  and  it  was  from  the  locality  in  which  the 
fighting  was  most  destructive  that  the  largest  number 
of  German  emigrants  came  to  the  New  World.  The 
great  and  fertile  Rhine  Valley,  once  the  main  highway 
of  commerce  from  the  Mediterranean  to  northern  Eu¬ 
rope,  and  therefore  the  best  hunting  ground  for  the  robber 
barons,  was  now  the  seat  of  war  after  war.  The  first  of 
these  was  the  Thirty  Years’  War,  ended  by  the  peace  of 
Westphalia  in  1649.  Historians  vie  with  one  another 
in  describing  the  horrible  devastation  of  this  conflict 
upon  the  locality  in  which  it  was  waged.  Says  one 
writer :  — 

“Not  only  were  horses  and  cattle  carried  away  by  the 
various  armies  which  shifted  back  and  forth  over  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land;  not  only  were  houses, 
barns,  and  even  crops  burned ;  but  the  master  of  the 
house  was  frequently  subjected  to  fiendish  tortures,  in 
order  that  he  might  thus  be  forced  to  discover  the  hiding 
place  of  his  gold ;  or,  as  often  happened,  as  a  punish¬ 
ment  for  having  nothing  to  give.  At  the  approach  of  a 
hostile  army  the  whole  village  would  take  to  flight,  and 
would  live  for  weeks  in  the  midst  of  forests  and  marshes, 
or  in  caves.  The  enemy  having  departed,  the  wretched 
survivors  would  return  to  their  ruined  homes  and  carry 
on  a  painful  existence  with  the  few  remains  of  their 
former  property,  until  they  were  forced  to  fly  again  by 
new  invasions. 

•  ••••*• 

“The  years  1635  and  1636  mark  the  period  of  the  most 
terrible  misery.  In  the  years  1636-1638  famine  and 
pestilence  came  to  add  to  the  suffering.  The  people  tried 


1 6  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

to  satisfy  hunger  with  roots,  grass,  and  leaves;  even 
cannibalism  became  more  or  less  frequent.  The  gallows 
and  the  graveyards  had  to  be  guarded;  the  bodies  of 
children  were  not  safe  from  their  mothers.  So  great  was 
the  destruction  that  where  once  were  flourishing  farms 
and  vineyards,  now  whole  bands  of  wolves  roamed  un¬ 
molested.”  1 

Even  yet  the  cup  of  misery  of  this  ill-fated  land  was  not 
filled.  The  peace  signed  at  Westphalia  in  1649  was 
quickly  broken  so  far  as  the  Palatinate  was  concerned. 
In  1674  another  war  broke  out  between  France  and  Hol¬ 
land,  that  lasted  with  but  few  interruptions  and  with 
slight  changes  of  combatants  for  several  years  more. 
Finally,  in  1689  the  French  determined  completely  to 
depopulate  this  country.  The  result  has  been  stated  in 
one  of  Macaulay’s  striking  paragraphs :  — 

“The  commander  announced  to  near  half  a  million 
human  beings  that  he  granted  them  three  days  of  grace, 
and  that  within  that  time  they  must  shift  for  themselves. 
Soon  the  roads  and  fields,  which  then  lay  deep  in  snow, 
were  blackened  by  innumerable  multitudes  of  men, 
women,  and  children  flying  from  their  homes.  .  .  .  The 
flames  went  up  from  every  market  place,  every  parish 
church,  every  country  seat,  within  the  devoted  province. 
The  fields  where  the  corn  had  been  sowed  were  plowed 
up.  The  orchards  were  cut  down.” 

These  poor  hunted  creatures  fled  by  tens  of  thousands 
to  the  valleys  and  broad  fields  of  Pennsylvania,  where 
they  have  preserved  their  language,  customs,  religion, 
and  traditions  even  to  the  present  day,  presenting  the 

1  Oscar  Kuhns,  “The  German  and  Swiss  Settlements  of  Colonial 
Pennsylvania,”  pp.  3-9. 


CAUSES  OF  COLONIZATION 


17 


strange  paradox  of  the  oldest  “Americans”  speaking  a 
“ foreign”  tongue.  They  fled  down  the  Rhine,  crowded 
into  Amsterdam,  where  they  became  the  victims  of  a 
horde  of  hyena-like  shipping  agents,  who  plundered  them 
of  their  last  coin,  then  shipped  them  upon  overcrowded 
and  unseaworthy  ships,  with  such  accommodations  that 
sometimes  half  of  them  died  upon  the  passage,  and  the 
remainder  were  landed  in  America,  so  indebted  to  the 
ship’s  officers  that  they  were  sold  into  temporary  slav¬ 
ery  to  pay  their  passage.1 

Throughout  this  period,  whichever  of  the  warring  re¬ 
ligious  sects  gained  control  of  any  government  promptly 
used  its  power  to  “ stamp  out  the  heresy”  of  its  com¬ 
petitors.  So  there  was  never  a  lack  of  religious  refugees 
seeking  an  asylum  in  America,  although  the  number  of 
these  has  been  vastly  exaggerated,  since  the  love  of  re¬ 
ligious  freedom  is  ordinarily  looked  upon  as  a  much 
higher  motive  for  emigration  than  economic  necessity. 
It  is  almost  needless  to  say  that  each  little  flock  of  refu¬ 
gees  was  no  sooner  safely  settled  in  the  New  World  than 
it  proceeded  to  discover  new  heretics  among  its  own 
members,  who  were  piously  driven  into  the  surrounding 
wilderness. 

During  the  eighteenth  century  another  important 
element  was  added  to  the  stream  of  immigration.  This 
time  it  came  from  Ireland  and  was  composed  of  that  body 
that  was  to  play  such  an  important  part  in  certain  phases 

1  For  details  of  these  matters,  see  Frank  R.  Diffenderfer,  “The  Ger¬ 
man  Immigration  into  Pennsylvania  through  the  Port  of  Philadelphia 
from  1700-1775,”  in  Part  VII  of  the  “Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
Pennsylvania”;  also  same  author,  “The  Redemptioners  in  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,”  in  German  Society  Publications,  Vol.  X ;  Geiser,  “Redemptioners 
in  Pennsylvania.” 


l8  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  American  history,  the  Scotch-Irish.  An  explanation 
of  this  movement  is  contained  in  the  following  extract 
from  Campbell’s  work  on  “The  Puritan  in  Holland, 
England,  and  America”  (Vol.  II,  p.  427) :  — 

“In  1698,  upon  the  demand  of  the  English  manufac¬ 
turers,  the  woolen  industry  of  Ireland  was  utterly  des¬ 
troyed.  It  was  claimed  that  labor  was  cheaper  there 
than  in  England,  and  that,  therefore,  the  product  could 
be  sold  at  a  lower  price.  This  was  not  to  be  endured. 
The  interference  of  Parliament  was  invoked,  and  by  a 
series  of  repressive  acts,  the  Irish  looms  were  closed.  As 
one  result  of  this  legislation  twenty  thousand  of  the 
Protestant  artisans  of  Ulster,  deprived  of  employment, 
left  Ireland  for  America,  carrying  with  them  the  remem¬ 
brance  of  how  English  faith,  plighted  to  their  forefathers, 
had  been  broken  under  the  influence  of  English  greed.” 

The  next  step  was  the  enactment  by  Queen  Anne’s 
parliament  of  laws  persecuting  the  Scotch-Irish  for  their 
religious  belief,  and  this  was  followed  by  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  the  “rack-renting”  system,  under  which  the 
native  Irish,  with  a  lower  standard  of  living,  were  enabled 
to  underbid  the  former  tenants.  Add  to  this  a  famine 
in  1740,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  this  “was  by  far  the 
largest  contribution  of  any  race  to  the  population  of 
America  during  the  eighteenth  century.”  1 

It  is  the  same  story  everywhere.  It  was  not  because 
America  drew  them  on,  but  because  Europe  drove  them 
out,  that  the  colonists  came  to  America. 

Thousands  of  the  poorer  colonists  sold  themselves  for 
a  series  of  years  as  slaves  in  order  to  pay  the  passage 
money  that  had  been  advanced  by  the  shipowners.  In 

1  John  R.  Commons,  “Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,”  pp.  34-36. 


CAUSES  OF  COLONIZATION 


19 


fact,  John  R.  Commons  estimates  that  probably  one  half 
of  all  the  immigrants  of  the  colonial  period  landed  as 
4 ‘indentured  servants.” 

There  were  three  classes  of  “white  slaves”  in  colonial 
times.  The  larger  class,  to  which  reference  has  just  been 
made,  were  those  who  agreed  with  the  masters  of  some 
vessel  that  in  return  for  a  passage  to  the  New  World  the 
shipowner  should  have  the  right  to  sell  the  passenger 
into  servitude  for  a  definite  number  of  years.  In  the 
majority  of  cases  this  sale  was  made  at  the  wharf,  and 
the  newspapers  of  the  time  regularly  contain  advertise¬ 
ments  of  the  arrival  of  ships  with  “indentured  servants” 
to  be  sold.  In  case  no  buyers  came  to  the  ship  the  pas¬ 
sengers  were  sold  to  agents,  who  chained  them  together 
and  peddled  them  through  the  towns  and  villages. 

Another  large  class  of  slaves  was  made  up  of  criminals, 
sent  here  largely  from  England,  and  sold  to  the  colonists 
for  a  term  of  years. 

As  the  raising  of  cotton  and  tobacco  and  some  other 
staple  crops  became  more  profitable,  and  the  close  vicin¬ 
ity  of  the  forest  with  free  land  made  it  difficult  to  keep 
employees  at  the  beggarly  wages  which  prevailed,  the 
demand  for  workmen  became  so  great  that  a  regular 
trade  in  the  stealing  of  persons  for  colonial  slavery  sprung 
up  in  England.  So  prevalent  did  this  practice  become 
that  it  added  a  new  phrase  to  the  language.  Those  who 
stole  these  children  for  export  to  America  were  called 
“spirits,”  and  from  this  came  the  phrase  to  “spirit  away”: 

“Children  and  adults  alike  were  lured  or  forced  upon 
vessels  in  the  harbor,  or  carried  to  the  numerous  cook- 
shops  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  wharves  in  the  principal 
seaports,  and  here  they  were  kept  in  close  confinement 


20 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


until  sold  to  merchants  or  masters  of  ships  which  were 
about  to  sail  for  the  colonies.  As  a  result  of  this  spiriting 
away,  frauds  became  so  common,  that  in  1664  the  Com¬ 
mittee  for  Foreign  Plantations  decided  to  interfere.  .  .  . 
A  committee  was  appointed  whose  duty  it  was  to  register 
the  names  and  ages  of  all  who  wished  to  emigrate  to 
America.  But  this  did  not  put  a  stop  to  the  practice. 
Ten  years  after  this  act  became  a  law,  it  was  stated  that 
10,000  persons  were  annually  spirited  away  from  Eng¬ 
land  by  kidnappers.” 

Finally  more  than  200,000  negro  slaves  were  stolen  from 
their  homes  in  Africa  by  Dutch  or  New  England  traders 
and  sold  to  the  planters  of  the  Southern  colonies.  His¬ 
torians  have  told  us  much  of  the  discomforts  of  the  voy¬ 
agers  on  the  Mayflower ,  but  they  have  had  little  to  say 
of  the  horrors  endured  by  the  miserable  fugitives  from 
the  Palatinate,  and  still  less  of  the  terrible  sufferings  in¬ 
flicted  upon  the  helpless  children  stolen  from  their  homes 
in  London  to  become  the  slaves  of  American  planters 
and  farmers. 


CHAPTER  III 


WHAT  THE  COLONISTS  FOUND  IN  AMERICA 

Social  institutions  are  born  of  two  elements,  —  the 
land  and  the  people.  In  the  childhood  of  society  these 
two  elements  in  action  and  reaction  are  almost  the  only 
factors  to  be  considered.  Later  the  inertia  of  social 
institutions  may  become  a  far  more  powerful  factor  in 
social  evolution  than  either  of  the  primary  factors.1  We 
have  seen  something  of  the  character  of  those  who  peopled 
this  continent.  We  have  learned  a  little  of  the  society 
from  which  they  came,  and  of  the  forces  that  sent  them 
across  the  ocean.  They  were  now  to  build  up  a  society 
in  a  new  world.  As  materials  to  this  end  they  brought 
with  them  a  vast  store  of  things  that  mankind  had  been 
countless  ages  in  acquiring:  the  knowledge  of  reading, 
and  printing  and  gunpowder,  of  making  tools  of  iron  and 
steel,  of  spinning  and  weaving  and  making  of  clothing, 
social  and  governmental  institutions,  churches,  laws, 
creeds,  beliefs,  prejudices,  superstitions.  All  these  things, 
developed  in  the  complex  civilization  of  Europe,  were 
now  transplanted  to  a  world  where  they  had  hitherto 
been  unknown. 

It  was  as  if  some  giant  hand  had  gathered  a  multitude 
of  seeds  of  all  kinds  and  manner  of  plants  from  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth  and  had  flung  them  at  random  upon  the 

1  J.  Paul  Goode,  “The  Human  Response  to  the  Physical  Environ¬ 
ment,”  in  the  Journal  of  Geography ,  Vol.  Ill,  No.  7. 


22 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


American  hills  and  plains.  Some  would  never  sprout; 
others  would  die  with  the  first  frost,  or  be  shriveled  with 
overmuch  heat.  Some  would  be  drowned  with  too  much 
rain,  while  others  would  lack  the  tropical  downpour 
essential  to  life.  Some  would  find  the  new  conditions  so 
ex(?eptionably  favorable  that  they  would  grow  to  giant 
weeds,  choking  out  other  plants  of  greater  intrinsic  value. 

Let  us  look  upon  the  land  where  this  plentiful  load  of 
old  achievements,  beliefs,  and  institutions  are  to  be 
thrown,  that  we  may  see  which  are  most  suited  to  sur¬ 
vive  and  flourish,  and  where  each  kind  may  reach  its 
highest  development. 

The  Atlantic  coast  is  a  good  colonial  seed  bed.  Con¬ 
trast  its  abundant  harbors,  long  tidal  rivers,  and  general 
open  appearance  with  the  smooth,  closed  wall  of  the 
Pacific  coast.  Here  is  room  for  many  communities  to 
grow  up  independent  of  one  another.  It  is  almost  an 
axiom  of  history  that  peninsulas  form  a  sort  of  social 
hotbeds  in  which  nations  grow  rapidly  to  a  high  stage  of 
maturity.  A  handful  of  colonists  could  scarcely  have 
been  thrown  at  any  spot  from  Maine  to  Georgia  without 
finding  a  favorable  opening  in  which  to  lodge  and  sprout 
and  grow. 

In  the  days  when  the  colonists  came  to  America,  and, 
indeed,  in  all  the  years  before  that  time,  rivers  were  the 
principal  means  of  communication,  even  in  old  countries, 
while  in  new  countries  they  were  almost  the  only  high¬ 
ways  of  commerce  and  travel.  The  region  in  which  the 
first  American  colonies  were  located  was  amply  provided 
with  these  natural  highways.  Abundant  navigable  rivers 
afforded  access  far  into  the  interior.  Only  in  New  Eng¬ 
land  was  the  “fall  line”  so  close  to  the  ocean  as  to  give 


WHAT  THE  COLONISTS  FOUND  IN  AMERICA  23 


rise  to  the  short  swift  rivers  which  confine  settlement  to  the 
coast  and  supply  power  to  turn  the  wheels  of  industry. 

An  examination  of  these  rivers  will  tell  us  much  of  the 
history  of  the  region  they  drain.  The  broad  deep  Hud¬ 
son  and  Susquehanna  tapped  country  rich  in  fur  in  the 
beginning,  which  was  later  to  become  a  bountiful  farming 
region.  These  facts  suggest  that  some  day  an  Astor 
should  rise  and  rule  at  the  mouth  of  one  of  these  rivers 
and  that  both  should  become  the  seat  of  great  commercial 
cities.  The  Rappahannock  and  the  James  ebbed  and 
flowed  with  the  tide  for  many  miles  through  rich  alluvial 
silt,  which  was  to  be  marked  off  into  broad  plantations, 
first  for  tobacco  and  later  for  cotton.  Ocean  vessels  could 
sail  up  these  tidewater  streams  to  the  wharves  of  the 
rich  planters,  who  ruled  over  armies  of  chattel  slaves 
and  sold  their  products  directly  in  foreign  markets. 

When  society  was  so  closely  connected  with  the  tilling 
of  the  soil,  the  character  of  that  element  played  an  im¬ 
portant  part  in  determining  social  evolution.  The  gla¬ 
ciated  clay  of  New  England  with  its  coating  of  ice- 
brought  bowlders  was  difficult  of  cultivation  but  slow 
of  exhaustion.  It  invited  small  permanent  farms,  with 
such  small  profits  as  to  require  an  auxiliary  industry  like 
fishing,  hunting,  or  trading  to  maintain  a  living.  The 
alluvial  silt  of  the  South  was  the  opposite  in  its  charac¬ 
teristics.  Easy  of  conquest  in  the  beginning,  it  invited 
the  cultivation  of  staple  crops  with  high  profits  which 
,  quickly  exhausted  the  soil,  compelling  continuous  change 
of  location.  Slavery  was  almost  as  impossible  under  the 
former  conditions  as  it  was  inevitable  under  the  latter. 

Climate  plays  its  part  in  deciding  historical  events. 
It  would  be  as  hard  to  imagine  the  individualistic,  ener- 


24 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


getic,  dogmatic  Puritan  of  New  England  preaching, 
fighting,  trading  beneath  the  torrid  sun  of  the  Carolinas, 
as  to  think  of  the  fox-hunting,  gambling,  slaveholder 
building  his  plantation  mansion  with  its  broad  verandas 
on  the  bleak  New  England  hills. 

While  the  various  peninsulas  and  river  systems  into 
which  the  Atlantic  coast  is  divided  favored  a  high  de¬ 
velopment  of  individual  colonies,  and  tended  to  produce 
and  emphasize  local  peculiarities,  the  ocean  which  con¬ 
nected  all  the  colonies  constituted  a  broad  and  ever  open 
highway  that  bound  them  together.  Whatsoever  in¬ 
terests  like  commerce  and  fishing  required  the  use  of  this 
common  means  of  transportation  tended  to  unite  the 
various  colonies,  and  we  shall  find  these  interests  playing 
a  prominent  part  in  the  formation  of  a  united  nation. 
As  each  colony  crept  back  from  the  ocean  and  away 
from  the  river,  its  peoples  came  into  contact  with  those 
of  its  neighbors.  At  the  headwaters  of  the  rivers  there 
would  soon  arise  a  body  of  people  more  closely  united  to 
each  other  than  to  any  single  colony.  This  process  was 
hastened  by  the  fact  that  there  extended  along  the  full 
length  of  the  settlements  a  broad  mountain  range  that 
set  a  limit  to  western  expansion  during  most  of  the  colo¬ 
nial  period.  Once  the  Indians  had  been  driven  beyond 
the  Appalachians,  these  mountain  ranges  formed  a  pro¬ 
tecting  barrier  for  the  colonies  against  further  attacks. 
This  protecting  barrier  to  expansion  fostered  colonial 
solidarity.  It  hastened  the  evolution  of  society  to  that 
partially  self-supporting  stage,  which  rendered  possible 
the  common  action  that  resulted  in  political  independence 

and  national  existence.  To  understand  what  the  absence 

» 

of  such  a  limiting  and  protecting  barrier  might  have 


WHAT  THE  COLONISTS  FOUND  IN  AMERICA  25 

t 

meant,  it  is  only  necessary  to  glance  at  the  French  spread¬ 
ing  over  all  Canada  and  the  Mississippi  Valley,  forming 
no  political  organizations,  and  establishing  no  social  or 
political  unity  between  their  widely  scattered  settlements. 
In  the  first  stages  of  industrial  evolution  only  the  “  ex¬ 
tractive  industries  ”  are  developed.  These  are  the  in¬ 
dustries  that  extract  raw  material  directly  from  the  earth, 
as  contrasted  with  those  that  work  up  such  raw  material 
into  the  finished  products  used  by  a  more  complex  civili¬ 
zation.  In  any  such  industrial  stage  the  social  organiza¬ 
tion  will  depend  quite  largely  upon  the  nature  of  the  raw 
materials  to  be  “extracted.” 

Off  the  coast  of  New  England  lay  the  Newfoundland 
Banks,  the  richest  fishing  grounds  in  the  world.  From 
Cape  Cod  to  the  Arctics  there  stretched  away  the  “green 
pastures”  of  the  whale.  These  two  facts  determined 
political  and  military  relations,  affected  treaties,  re¬ 
peatedly  threatened  war,  determined  colonial  and  national 
legislation  for  more  than  three  centuries,  and  set  in  motion 
streams  of  influence  that  even  to-day  mightily  affect  the 
current  of  industrial  and  social  life. 

The  Atlantic  coast  plain,  the  Appalachians,  and  the 
whole  eastern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  were  cov¬ 
ered  with  a  dense  growth  of  forest.  It  is  almost  impos¬ 
sible  to  exaggerate  the  influence  which  this  fact  played 
in  colonial  history.  It  was  the  pine  forests  of  New  Eng¬ 
land,  in  combination  with  the  near-by  fishing  grounds, 
that  laid  the  foundation  for  the  great  commercial  life 
of  that  section.  Although  the  choicest  trees  were  marked 
with  the  “broad  arrow”  of  the  king  to  indicate  that  they 
were  to  be  cut  only  in  order  to  be  shipped  to  England  for 
use  in  the  royal  navy,  yet  the  colonists  were  seldom 


26 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


troubled  with  an  overly  tender  legal  conscience,  and  many 
a  “ broad  arrow”  was  removed  and  the  tree  which  it 
marked  converted  into  masts  for  some  New  England 
merchantman. 

The  forest  was  at  once  an  obstacle  to  settlement  and 
cultivation,  a  shelter  for  the  Indian,  the  home  of  fur¬ 
bearing  and  meat-carrying  animals,  and  a  regulator  of 
climate  and  flow  of  water.  Just  how  great  a  part  the 
forest  has  played  in  American  history  we  are  only  be¬ 
ginning  to  appreciate  when  it  has  almost  disappeared. 

Hunting,  both  for  food  and  furs;  lumbering;  ship¬ 
building;  and  the  manufacture  of  such  diverse  products 
as  turpentine,  charcoal,  and  pearlash;  the  blockhouse 
for  defense,  and  the  log  cabin  for  shelter,  —  all  these 
various  and  most  characteristic  features  of  American 
life  owe  their  existence  to  this  great  forest  belt. 

To  follow  but  one  of  these  features,  and  that  not  the 
most  important,  but  a  little  way  along  its  ramifications : 
The  woods  teemed  with  animals,  large  and  small,  whose 
furry  coverings  were  coveted  by  man  —  or  woman.  In 
pursuit  of  this  fur  men  explored  rivers,  founded  cities, 
cut  the  trails  through  the  forest  that  marked  the  lines  of 
a  future  commerce,  and  sketched  in  outline  the  geographic 
basis  of  American  social  life.  The  fur  trade  made  and 
modified  Indian  policies,  directed  the  course  of  popula¬ 
tion,  located  national  boundary  lines,  laid  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  much  of  our  present  financial  organization, 
created  the  first  of  the  race  of  American  millionaires, 
and  in  a  hundred  other  ways  set  its  stamp  upon  our  social 
institutions. 

Throughout  colonial  times  agriculture  was  the  basic 
dominant  industry  in  all  the  colonies,  with  the  possible 


'  BOSTON  COUME 

CHESTNUT  HfLU  ttaAS§b  ] 

A 

WHAT  THE  COLONISTS  FOUND  IN  AMERICA  27 

exception  of  some  of  the  fishing  communities  of  New 
England.  A  large  number  of  the  staple  crops  of  Europe 
were  successful  here,  including  wheat,  flax,  apples,  and 
grapes.  Most  of  the  domestic  animals  of  Europe  were 
transplanted  to  this  country  with  little  change.  America 
gave  three  new  plants  to  agriculture,  —  corn,  tobacco, 
and  potatoes,  —  and  it  far  exceeds  all  the  rest  of  the  world 
in  the  production  of  another  —  cotton.  The  first  two 
and  the  last  one  have  made  and  unmade  social  systems 
and  governmental  policies,  and  have  determined  the 
methods  of  life  for  great  sections  of  the  population.  A 
complete  account  of  any  one  of  these  three  would  give 
a  far  more  accurate  history  of  America  (though  still 
warped  and  incomplete)  than  the  biographies  of  any  half- 
dozen  “ great  men”  that  have  lived  on  this  continent. 

Only  two  animals  that  are  peculiar  to  America  have 
had  any  great  influence  on  agriculture,  —  the  turkey  and 
the  bison.  Until  within  the  last  decade  the  influence  of 
the  latter  was  similar  to  that  of  all  other  wild  animals, 
merely  as  a  competitor  in  supplying  meat,  but  attempts 
at  domestication  and  cross  breeding  with  domestic  cattle 
would  now  indicate  that  this  animal  may  be  destined 
to  play  a  more  important  part  in  the  future,  unless  the 
slight  remnant  of  his  blood  is  too  small  to  found  a  new 
race. 

America  was  not  an  untrodden  land  when  English¬ 
man  and  Spaniard  first  set  foot  upon  its  shores.  Thinly 
scattered  over  its  vast  reaches  there  lived  a  race,  just 
evolving  out  of  the  hunting  and  fishing  stage  into  that  of 
a  rude  agriculture. 

The  Indian  has  exercised  a  profound  influence  upon 
American  history.  He  was  the  ablest  savage  fighter  the 


28 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


world  has  ever  known.  Man  for  man  he  has  taken  his 
weapons  from  the  white  man  and  yet  held  his  own  in  the 
centuries-long  battle  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 
He  has  retreated  before  superior  numbers.  He  has  never 
acknowledged  defeat.  The  existence  of  a  relentless 
watchful  foe  compelled  compactness  of  settlement,  de¬ 
termined  the  location  of  towns  and  villages,  and  devel¬ 
oped  a  race  of  frontier  fighters  that  proved  the  decisive 
influence  in  every  war  in  which  this  nation  has  been  en¬ 
gaged.  The  Indian  trails  marked  the  roads  that  were 
followed  by  the  traders,  the  makers  of  highways,  and  the 
builders  of  railroads,  each  in  turn.  Tobacco  and  corn 
had  both  been  domesticated  by  the  Indian,  and  he  taught 
the  white  man  how  to  raise  them.  In  the  fur  trade  the 
Indian  was  always  an  important  factor,  and  the  trade 
with  Indian  tribes  was  for  more  than  two  centuries  an 
important  part  of  American  commercial  life. 

It  has  been  generally  accepted  by  historians,  based  upon 
the  observation  of  almost  countless  examples,  that  when 
two  unlike  nations  of  unequal  strength  come  into  con¬ 
flict,  the  succeeding  steps  will  be:  invasion,  conquest, 
enslavement,  amalgamation.  The  relation  of  the  Indian 
to  the  white  race  has  lacked  the  last  two  steps.  Although 
the  present  population  of  the  United  States  is  the  most 
composite  in  the  world,  it  contains  little  more  than  a 
trace  of  the  blood  of  the  original  inhabitants.  Neither 
was  the  Indian  transformed  into  a  slave,  as  has  been  the 
case  with  multitudes  of  conquered  peoples.  This  was 
not  because  of  any  lack  of  inclination  in  that  direction 
by  the  white  invaders.  From  the  New  England  Puritans, 
who  divided  up  the  Pequod  women  and  children  after 
massacring  the  men,  and  sold  King  Philip’s  son  to  West 


WHAT  THE  COLONISTS  FOUND  IN  AMERICA  29 


Indian  sugar  planters,  to  the  Spaniards,  who,  with  whips 
and  hot  irons,  drove  a  multitude  to  a  horrible  death  in 
the  mines  of  Central  and  South  America,  attempts  to 
enslave  the  Indian  were  never  lacking.  Yet  so  far  as  the 
race  was  concerned  these  attempts  were  a  striking  failure. 
The  Indian  would  die,  but  he  would  not  serve.  During 
the  time  of  Southern  negro  slavery  if  it  became  known 
that  ever  so  little  Indian  blood  flowed  in  the  veins  of  a 
slave,  his  value  quickly  fell  off  or  entirely  disappeared, 
for  it  was  recognized  that  it  was  always  but  a  question 
of  time  until  either  the  master  or  the  slave  would  die  a 
violent  death. 

Had  the  Indian  not  possessed  this  characteristic,  how 
different  American  history  might  have  been.  With  a 
servile  native  population,  acclimated  to  all  portions  of 
the  country,  the  negro  need  never  have  been  stolen  from 
Africa;  slavery  would  have  been  a  national  instead  of 
a  sectional  institution;  the  Indian  would  have  been 
absorbed  by  the  whites  or  bred  in  slavery  until  his  num¬ 
bers  were  equal  to,  or  exceeded,  those  of  his  masters,  and 
—  but  when  one  enters  the  realm  of  historical  “ifs,  ”  there 
is  no  place  to  stop. 

We  have  seen  something  of  what  the  colonists  found 
when  they  came  to  America.  We  have  said  nothing  of 
the  minerals  and  the  natural  wealth  that  were  found  at 
a  later  time.  This  chapter  is  meant  only  to  suggest  some 
of  the  things  that  will  be  discussed  at  much  greater 
length,  as  occasion  arises.  Yet  the  history  of  America 
is  just  the  story  of  how  these  raw  materials,  natural  re¬ 
sources,  indigenous  products,  and  peoples  were  used  by 
those  who  came  to  this  country,  and  by  their  descendants 
in  satisfying  their  wants. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 

There  is  much  in  common  in  the  course  of  social 
evolution  through  which  each  of  the  colonies  passed. 
Each  was  working  out  the  problem  of  the  creation  of  a 
new  social  unit  with  much  the  same  materials.  In  the 
beginning  the  colony  was  generally  established  as  an 
outlying  possession  of  some  private  trading  company. 
The  London  Company  and  the  Plymouth  Company  were 
private  corporations  to  which  nearly  all  of  what  is  now 
the  United  States  was  assigned  as  private  property.  Had 
the  first  ships  sent  out  discovered  gold,  or  realized  the 
rich  profits  to  be  made  in  furs,  the  whole  history  of  this 
country  would  possibly  have  been  different.  It  is  within 
the  realm  of  the  possible  that  these  companies  might 
have  built  up  gigantic  private  enterprises  with  govern¬ 
mental  functions  like  that  of  the  East  India  Company  in 
British  India.  That  this  idea  is  by  no  means  fanciful 
is  shown  by  the  history  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
in  the  much  less  favorable  location  of  northern  Canada. 

The  first  expeditions  sent  out  by  these  companies  did 
not  find  gold.  They  did  not  find  profits  of  any  kind. 
Consequently,  the  companies  soon  lost  interest  and  the 
colonies  were  permitted  to  work  out  their  own  salvation. 

The  course  of  evolution  pursued  in  each  colony  bears 
a  striking  resemblance  to  the  line  of  development  that 

30 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


31 


the  race  has  followed.  Caution  is  needed  in  applying 
this  or  any  other  historical  analogy,  because  the  colonists 
were  not  primitive  savages,  and  they  did  not  evolve 
independent  of  the  remainder  of  the  world. 

In  the  beginning  nearly  every  colony,  being  confronted 
with  the  problem  of  maintaining  a  small  group,  composed 
of  individuals  of  nearly  equal  strength,  in  the  midst  of 
a  hostile  environment,  solved  that  problem  as  the  race 
solved  it  at  the  same  stage  by  the  adoption  of  primitive 
communism.  As  soon  as  the  colony  advanced  to  the 
point  where  division  of  labor  and  the  importation  of 
domestic  animals  with  diversified  industry  made  its 
appearance,  communism  was  naturally  discarded.  It 
had  not  “ failed”  or  “succeeded,”  or  been  “rejected”  by 
the  colonists  any  more  than  the  similar  stage  in  race 
history.1 

Very  early  the  colonies  began  to  develop  important 
differences,  which  were  destined  to  have  the  most  far- 
reaching  consequences.  It  therefore  becomes  necessary 
to  consider  them  separately,  or  at  least  by  sections. 
This  division  and  the  peculiar  development  of  the  various 
sections  depends  largely  upon  geographical  conditions, 
some  of  which  already  have  been  considered. 

In  each  stage  of  social  evolution  the  size  of  the  social 
unit  depends  first  of  all  upon  the  extent  and  character  of 
the  transportation  system  upon  which  it  rests.  During 
colonial  times  there  were  three  systems  of  commercial 
communication  :  (1)  up  and  down  the  rivers  within  each 
colony ;  (2)  along  the  coast  between  the  colonies ;  (3)  for- 

1  Doyle,  “English  Colonies  in  America,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  55-64,  passim, , 
where  this  evolution  is  traced,  but  with  a  complete  misunderstanding  of 
its  explanation. 


32 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


eign,  across  the  ocean.1  All  except  the  last  of  these  have 
to-day  been  overshadowed  by  the  public  highways  and 
the  railroads. 

Such  a  system,  or  combination  of  systems,  or  lack  of 
system,  according  to  the  point  of  view,  tended  to  the 
creation  of  a  series  of  almost  isolated  societies  with  very 
different  characteristics.  Each  such  society  had  its  own 
seaport  which  evolved  into  the  commercial,  financial,  and 
political  head  of  the  colony.  From  this  city  the  river 
reached  into  the  interior,  determining  the  direction  and 
extent  of  settlement,  and  acting  as  the  common  carrier  for 
the  produce  of  the  forest  and  later  of  the  farms  that 
grew  up  along  its  banks.  The  colony  as  a  whole,  in  the 
beginning  at  least,  was  constantly  recruited  from  across 
the  ocean  and  procured  many  of  its  necessities  from  the 
same  source.  During  this  time  it  was  really  in  much 
closer  touch  with  Europe  than  with  perhaps  its  nearest 
neighbor  among  the  other  colonies.2 

Aside  from  this  individual  isolation,  the  colonies  as  a 
whole  fell  into  three  well-marked  groups.  These  groups 
were  New  England,  the  Middle  Colonies  (between  the 
Hudson  and  the  Potomac),  and  the  Southern,  lying 
south  of  the  latter  river. 

1  Weeden,  “Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,”  Vol.  I, 
PP-  376-377- 

2  “  Each  of  the  thirteen  original  colonies  had  one  or  more  seaports,  and 
the  main  current  of  trade  existing  during  the  entire  colonial  era,  and  in 
some  respects  up  to  much  later  periods,  was  between  these  ports  and  the 
interior  districts  of  the  colonies  in  which  they  were  respectively  located, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  outer  world,  via  the  ocean,  on  the  other.  Com¬ 
merce  between  the  colonies  was  of  limited  magnitude,  and  originally  nearly 
all  the  movements  made  from  one  colony  to  another  were  conducted  in 
shallops,  sloops,  schooners,  and  other  sea-going  vessels.” — I.  L.  Ringwalt, 
“Development  of  Transportation  Systems  in  the  United  States,”  p.  3. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


33 


In  each  of  these  colonies  a  somewhat  different  group  of 
Europeans  was  working  out  the  problem  of  a  new  society 
with  the  peculiar  natural  environment  of  its  locality. 

New  England  was  settled  in  the  beginning  largely  by 
the  Puritans,  the  English  expression  of  the  Reformation. 
They  belonged  mostly  to  the  middle  class,  were  generally 
fairly  well  educated,  extremely  individualistic  in  their 
ideas,  and  bigoted  in  their  religion.  These  characteristics 
were  rather  accentuated  than  otherwise  by  being  trans¬ 
planted  to  a  new  country,  and  by  the  fact  that  whole 
congregations  came  together. 

In  its  physical  features  New  England  possessed  sev¬ 
eral  points  that  differentiated  her  quite  sharply  from 
the  other  colonies.  The  point  where  the  break  comes 
in  the  rivers  between  the  tidewater  level  and  the  rise  of 
the  continental  mainland  is  much  closer  to  the  ocean 
than  in  the  more  southern  portion  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 
The  rivers  could  be  navigated  but  a  short  distance.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  gave  rise  to  numerous  water  powers, 
close  to  the  ocean,  at  the  head  of  navigation,  which  later 
marked  the  seat  of  manufacturing  cities.  “With  the 
exception  of  the  Connecticut,  therefore,”  says  Semple,1 
“which  added  fertile  meadow  lands  to  the  attraction  of 
the  fur  trade,  the  streams  of  New  England,  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  their  limited  basins  and  rapid,  broken  courses, 
scarcely  affected  early  settlement.” 

There  was  a  negative  way  in  which  this  absence  of 
navigable  rivers  affected  New  England  life.  In  the  other 
colonies  there  was  one  river  around  which  the  life  of  the 
colony  was  grouped  and  which  formed  the  main  highway 

1  Ellen  Churchill  Semple,  “American  History  and  its  Geographic 
Conditions,”  p.  24. 

D 


34 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


into  the  interior  and  for  commerce  within  the  colony 
itself.  The  absence  of  such  rivers  in  New  England  kept 
the  settlements  close  to  the  coast,  and  made  the  ocean 
the  main  carrier  for  all  commerce,  local  or  foreign.  The 
geographical  isolation  from  the  remainder  of  the  Atlantic 
coast  led  to  an  intensive  growth  of  the  New  England 
society. 

“  Mountains  and  straggling,  rugged  hills  separated  her 
from  the  great  northern  valleys.  Until  the  middle  of 
our  century,  when  iron  ways  and  steam-driven  carriages 
pierced  the  mountain  chains,  carrying  exchanges  into 
the  Hudson,  Mohawk,  and  the  St.  Lawrence  valleys, 
New  England  was  a  coastwise  community,  physically 
forced  into  the  economic  development  of  the  Atlantic 
coast.”  1 

This  peculiar  isolated,  intensive  growth  so  emphasized 
industrial  and  social  institutions  as  to  give  them  a  re¬ 
markable  power  of  impressing  themselves  upon  after¬ 
time.  In  this  regard  New  England  society  was  much 
like  carefully  bred  live  stock  in  that  it  showed  a  great 
power  of  persistence  and  capacity  of  impressing  its 
characteristics  upon  its  descendants  even  when  the 
degree  of  relationship  is  extremely  small. 

During  the  first  twenty  years  after  the  famous  landing 
at  Plymouth  Rock  in  1620,  New  England  life  rested  al¬ 
most  entirely  upon  crude  agriculture,  fishing,  and  the 
trade  with  the  Indians.  Manufactured  articles  were 
brought  from  England,  either  in  exchange  for  furs  or 
else  as  a  part  of  the  possessions  of  the  steady  stream  of 
immigrants.  Agriculture  was  confined  largely  to  the 

1  Weeden,  “Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,”  Vol.  I, 
pp.  15-16. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE  35 

raising  of  Indian  corn  under  the  instruction  of  friendly 
Indians. 

In  1624  the  first  cattle  were  brought  over  by  Governor 
Winslow.  These  increased  rapidly  and  were  augmented 
by  new  shipments  from  England  until  by  “  1632  no  farmer 
was  satisfied  to  do  without  a  cow;  and  there  was  in 
New  England,  not  only  a  domestic,  but  an  export,  demand 
for  the  West  Indies,  which  led  to  breeding  for  sale.  But 
the  market  was  soon  overstocked,  and  the  price  of  cattle 
went  down  from  fifteen  and  twenty  pounds  to  five 
pounds ;  and  milk  was  a  penny  a  quart.”  1  This  latter 
statement  about  the  price  of  milk  means  very  little,  as 
cows  were  seldom  milked  at  this  time,  being  raised  prin¬ 
cipally  for  their  hides,  and  secondly  for  meat,  and  only 
very  incidentally  for  their  milk.2 

During  this  period  the  machinery  of  commercial  and 
industrial  life  and  therefore  of  society  in  general  was  ex¬ 
tremely  crude.  The  trade  with  the  Indians  was  carried 
on  largely  by  barter,  or  by  the  use  of  the  shell  money 
called  “wampum,”  which  the  colonists  adopted  from  the 
red  men.  The  very  fact  that  such  a  primitive  currency 
could  be  used  in  common  by  the  two  races  speaks  vol¬ 
umes  for  the  nearness  to  which  they  came  to  living  upon 
the  same  social  stage.  In  addition  to  “wampum” 
various  commodities,  especially  corn  and  beaver  skins, 
were  constituted  mediums  of  exchange  by  colonial  law 
during  this  period.3 

1  Albert  S.  Bolles,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  115. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  1 1 6. 

3  Weeden,  “Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England, ”Vol.  I,  pp. 
32-47,  is  a  very  full  discussion  of  the  function  of  wampum  in  colonial  com¬ 
merce  with  the  Indians. 


36  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


This  use  of  various  commodities  as  “  money  ”  is  char¬ 
acteristic  of  an  early  stage  of  social  organization.  It  is 
one  through  which  the  white  race  in  other  lands  passed 
many  centuries  ago.  There  was  one  feature  of  the  emi¬ 
gration  from  England  that  tended  to  prevent  further 
reversion  to  lower  social  stages.  The  colonists  came  in 
groups,  generally  composed  of  a  single  church  congre¬ 
gation.  This  transplanted  the  nucleus  of  a  social  or¬ 
ganization  directly  to  the  New  World. 

About  1640  a  change  took  place  in  England  which  had 
direct  and  far-reaching  effects  upon  New  England.  The 
struggle  between  the  Puritans  and  the  Cavaliers  broke 
into  open  warfare,  in  which  the  former,  under  Cromwell, 
were  victorious.  Naturally  there  was  no  longer  any 
necessity  for  emigration  on  the  part  of  the  Puritans. 
On  the  contrary,  it  was  now  the  turn  of  the  Cavaliers  to 
emigrate,  but  as  the  majority  of  these  went  to  the  South¬ 
ern  colonies  we  need  not  concern  ourselves  with  them 
just  now. 

The  stoppage  of  immigration  meant  many  things  to 
the  colony.  Each  new  family  had  brought  with  it  a 
supply  of  manufactured  articles  for  its  own  use  at  least. 
The  ships  which  brought  them  carried  similar  articles 
for  sale  to  the  other  colonists.  A  ship  laden  with  immi¬ 
grants  could  afford  to  carry  freight  cheaper  and  make 
much  more  frequent  trips  than  one  without  passengers. 

As  a  result  of  this  condition  Weeden  1  tells  us  that,  — 

“  There  were  many  sellers,  few  buyers,  and  hardly  any 
currency.  There  was  a  privation,  not  from  scarcity,  but 
it  was  enforced  in  the  midst  of  abundance.  Wares  would 
not  command  wares,  money  there  was  none,  and  prices 

1  Loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  165-166. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


37 


fell  to  one  half,  yea,  to  a  third,  and  staggered  at  last  at 
about  one  quarter  of  the  old  standard.5’ 

As  we  shall  see  many  times  in  the  history  of  this  coun¬ 
try,  when  a  nation  is  thus  suddenly  thrown  back  upon 
its  own  resources,  it  begins  to  develop  new  lines  of  in¬ 
dustry.  In  this  case  the  colonists  were  forced  forward 
into  a  new  industrial  and  social  stage.  New  England 
now  entered  upon  the  road  of  diversified  industry,  the 
next  step  beyond  primitive  agriculture.  The  directions 
that  the  energies  of  the  colony  took  were  threefold,  — 
domestic  manufacturing,  fishing,  and  shipbuilding. 

May  13,  1640,  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts, 
passed  an  order  to  ascertain  — 

“What  men  and  women  are  skillful  in  braking,  spin¬ 
ning,  and  weaving;  what  means  for  the  providing  of 
wheels ;  and  to  consider  with  those  skillful  in  that  manu¬ 
facture,  what  course  may  be  taken  to  raise  the  materials 
and  produce  the  manufacture.55 1 

In  1646  a  patent  was  granted  to  Joseph  Jenks  of  the 
same  colony  for  an  improvement  in  the  manufacture  of 
scythes  for  the  cutting  of  grass.  He  succeeded  in  produc¬ 
ing  so  perfect  a  tool  for  this  purpose  that  little  improve¬ 
ment  was  made  in  his  design  for  nearly  three  centuries.1 2 

In  1648  an  iron  furnace  in  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  was 
turning  out  eight  tons  of  iron  a  week.  During  the  next 
ten  years  furnaces  were  set  up  at  several  other  places  in 
New  England,  all  making  use  of  the  “bog  ore55  to  be 
found  in  the  marshes.3 

1  W.  R.  Bagnall,  “The  Textile  Industries  of  the  United  States,”  p.  4. 

2  Weeden,  “Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England,”  Vol.  I, 
p.  183. 

3  A.  S.  Bolles,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  194. 


38  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


All  these  branches  of  manufacture  grew  steadily  during 
the  next  hundred  years.  But  faster  than  any  of  them 
grew  fishing  and  shipbuilding  and  all  manner  of  indus¬ 
trial  life  connected  with  the  sea,  until  one  writer  declares 
of  the  people  of  New  England  at  this  time  that,  “The 
world  never  saw  a  more  amphibious  population.”  1 

The  first  sawmill  was  built  at  Salmon  Falls,  New 
Hampshire,  in  1663,  and  was  the  beginning  of  the  great 
shipbuilding  industry  of  New  England.2 

All  industrial  life  centered  around  the  sea.  Some¬ 
times  a  farming,  fishing  sailor,  such  as  made  up  much 
of  the  population,  would,  with  the  aid  of  his  neighbors, 
build  a  ship  at  the  mouth  of  some  creek,  launch  it  during 
the  spring  freshet,  and  load  it  with  rum  for  the  African 
coast,  fish  for  the  Canaries,  or,  more  frequently,  with 
pitch,  tar,  hemp,  and  long  masts  for  England.  Here 
ship  and  cargo  would  both  be  sold,  while  the  former 
owner,  builder,  and  captain  would  ship  as  a  sailor  on  a 
return  voyage,  bringing  home  the  proceeds  of  his  venture. 

One  of  the  best  established  routes  of  colonial  trade  was 
the  famous  “  rum-molasses-slaves  ”  triangular  voyage. 
Loading  with  rum  from  one  of  the  host  of  distilleries  that 
filled  the  coast  towns  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island, 
the  good  Puritan  captain  would  set  sail  for  the  African 
coast  with  instructions  to  “put  plenty  of  water  in  ye 
rum,  and  use  short  meusure  as  much  as  possible,”  as 
one  letter  which  has  been  preserved  quaintly  reads.  In 
Africa  the  rum  was  exchanged  for  “black  ivory,”  as  the 
poor,  entrapped  negroes  were  called.  Storing  this  mer- 

1  Willis  J.  Abbot,  “American  Merchant  Ships  and  Sailors,”  p.  8. 

2  Eleanor  L.  Lord,  “Industrial  Experiments  in  the  British  Colonies 
of  North  America,”  John  Hopkins  Univ.  Studies  in  Hist,  and  Pol.  Set. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


39 


chandise  away  in  his  hold,  much  as  he  had  previously 
stored  the  hogsheads  of  rum,  the  ship  would  set  sail  for 
the  West  Indies  or  the  Carolinas,  where  such  of  the  cargo 
as  had  not  died  on  the  terrible  “middle  passage”  would 
be  traded  for  molasses,  from  which  in  turn  more  rum 
could  be  manufactured. 

A  society  built  upon  such  foundations  could  hardly 
be  expected  to  attain  the  perfection  which  tradition  has 
ascribed  to  Puritan  New  England.  That  it  was  some¬ 
thing  quite  the  reverse  from  the  legendary  society  of 
most  school  histories  is  shown  from  the  following  quota¬ 
tion  from  Weeden,  himself  a  New  England  writer :  — 

“We  have  seen  molasses  and  alcohol,  rum  and  slaves, 
gold  and  iron,  in  a  perpetual  and  unholy  round  of  com¬ 
merce.  All  society  was  fouled  in  this  lust;  it  was  in¬ 
flamed  by  the  passion  for  wealth ;  it  was  callous  to  the 
wrongs  of  imported  savages  or  displaced  barbarians.  .  .  . 
Cool,  shrewd,  sagacious  merchants  vied  with  punctilious, 
dogmatic  priests  in  promoting  this  prostitution  of  in¬ 
dustry.” 

With  the  change  in  the  industrial  base  the  appearance 
of  commerce  and  manufacture  and  exchange,  the  whole 
social  organization  was  transformed.  One  of  the  first 
signs  of  this  was  the  adoption  of  a  “money  economy.” 
“In  the  year  1670  Massachusetts  repealed  her  law,  ‘now 
injurious,’  which  made  corn,  cattle,  etc.,  the  equivalent 
for  money.”  1  Nearly  twenty  years  before  (1652)  the 
same  colony  had  established  a  mint  at  which  the  famous 
“Pine  Tree  Shillings”  had  been  coined. 

These  first  signs  of  industrial  self-sufficiency  were  ac¬ 
companied  by  the  beginnings  of  political  unrest,  and  the 

1  Weeden,  “Economic  History  of  New  England,”  Vol.  I,  p.  326. 


40 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


growth  of  a  general  independent  feeling.  One  of  the 
phases  of  this  was  the  establishment  of  the  New  England 
Confederation  in  1643,  comprising  all  the  New  England 
colonies,  except  Rhode  Island,  which  was  kept  out  be¬ 
cause  of  the  religious  heresy  of  its  founder,  Roger  Wil¬ 
liams,  and  his  followers. 

New  England  has  been  hailed  as  the  birthplace  of 
social  equality,  and  orators  and  superficial  historians 
are  prone  to  trace  all  democratic  institutions  back  to 
the  famous  “New  England  town  meeting.”  The  fact 
is  that  in  the  beginning  these  colonies,  so  far  as  local 
government  is  concerned,  were  theocratic  autocracies. 
Only  those  who  were  property  holders  and  members  of 
the  Established  Church  had  any  voice  whatever  even 
in  these  town  meetings.  The  social  gradations  with 
their  privileges  were  carefully  determined  by  law,  even 
to  the  sort  of  clothing  which  each  social  class  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  wear,  and  the  places  which  its  members  were 
to  occupy  in  the  “ meeting-house.”  As  soon  as  even  the 
beginnings  of  a  wage-working  class  appeared,  the  wages 
of  its  members  were  fixed  by  law,  and  their  position  care¬ 
fully  defined.1 

When  this  stage  had  been  reached  in  each  of  the  col¬ 
onies,  they  began  to  have  a  common  development  which 
can  be  better  traced  as  a  whole  after  considering  the 
course  by  which  the  others  arrived  at  this  same  stage. 

1  Weeden,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  98-99 ;  McMaster,  “The  Acquirement  of 
Political,  Social,  and  Industrial  Rights  of  Man  in  America,”  pp.  31-36, 
on  general  condition  of  colonial  laborers. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


41 


Virginia  and  the  Southern  Colonies 

When  we  cross  the  Potomac,  the  physical  conditions 
are  so  different  that  although  the  people  who  came  as 
colonists  were  practically  the  same  as  those  of  New  Eng¬ 
land,  yet  the  industrial  and  social  organization  which 
they  developed  was  strikingly  different.  Something 
has  already  been  said  of  the  physiographic  conditions  of 
Virginia.  There  is  one  phase,  however,  that  is  so  strik¬ 
ingly  described  by  John  Fiske  in  his  “Old  Virginia  and 
Her  Neighbors”  as  to  be  worth  quoting.  He  says  (Vol. 
I,  p.  263) :  — 

“The  country  known  as  Tidewater  Virginia’  is  a  kind 
of  sylvan  Venice.  Into  the  depths  of  the  shaggy  wood¬ 
land  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of  the  great  bay  the 
salt  tide  ebbs  and  flows.  One  can  go  surprisingly  far 
inland  on  a  seafaring  craft,  while  with  a  boat  there  are 
but  few  plantations  on  the  old  York  peninsula  to  which 
one  cannot  approach  very  near.” 

This  broad  alluvial  belt  was  in  striking  contrast  with 
the  narrow  strip  of  glaciated  clay  that  fringed  the  coast 
of  New  England.  The  “  fall  line  ”  was  distant  several 
hundred  miles  from  the  coast ;  there  were  no  rich  fishing 
banks  within  easy  sailing  distance,  and  the  nature  and 
the  form  of  agriculture  which  arose  made  for  dispersion 
and  not  for  concentration  of  population. 

In  the  beginning  Virginia  was  ruled  by  a  trading  com¬ 
pany  seeking  profits  for  its  shareholders.  For  the  first 
few  years  there  was  little  sign  of  any  profits.  In  fact  the 
colonists  repeatedly  came  within  a  narrow  margin  of 
starvation.  Then  came  the  discovery  of  the  possibilities 
in  the  cultivation  of  a  plant  that  was  destined  to  form 


42 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


the  basis  of  the  industrial  life  of  Virginia  for  many  years 
to  come.  This  was  tobacco,  of  whose  influence  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge  says :  — 

“  Tobacco  founded  this  colony  and  gave  it  wealth.  It 
was  the  currency  of  Virginia,  and  as  bad  a  one  as  could 
be  devised,  and  fluctuating  with  every  crop,  yet  it  re¬ 
tained  its  place  as  a  circulating  medium  despite  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  to  introduce  specie.  The  clergy  were 
paid  and  the  taxes  levied  in  tobacco.  The  whole  pros¬ 
perity  of  the  colony  rested  upon  it  for  more  than  a  cen¬ 
tury,  and  it  was  not  until  the  period  of  the  Revolution 
that  other  crops  began  to  come  in  and  to  replace  it.  The 
fluctuations  in  tobacco  caused  the  first  conflict  with  Eng¬ 
land,  brought  on  by  the  clergy,  and  paved  the  way  to 
resistance.  In  tobacco  the  Virginian  estimated  his  income 
and  the  value  of  everything  he  possessed;  and  in  its 
various  functions,  as  well  as  in  its  methods  of  cultivation, 
it  had  strong  effect  upon  the  character  of  the  people. 

“Tobacco  planting  made  slaves  necessary  and  profit¬ 
able,  and  fastened  slavery  upon  the  province.  The 
method  of  cultivation,  requiring  intense  labor  and  watch¬ 
ing  for  a  short  period,  and  permitting  complete  idleness 
for  the  rest  of  the  year,  fostered  habits  which  alternated 
feverish  exertion  and  languid  indolence. ”  1 

The  discovery  that  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  for  the 
European  market  afforded  a  means  by  which  the  colony 
could  be  made  to  produce  a  profit  at  once  aroused  the 
interest  of  the  stockholders  of  the  company.  So  long  as 
the  colonists  were  starving  and  calling  constantly  for 
relief  there  was  little  interest  on  the  part  of  the  London 
owners  of  the  corporation.  But  now  there  was  the  possi- 

1  See  also  Fiske,  “Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,”  Vol.  I,  p.  227. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


43 


bility  of  building  up  a  gigantic  and  powerful  commercial 
monopoly.  Just  what  the  result  of  the  exploitation  of 
this  crop  by  a  great  trading  corporation  owning  the  entire 
southern  half  of  what  is  now  the  United  States  would 
have  been  we  shall  never  have  an  opportunity  to  know. 
Political  considerations  (resting,  to  be  sure,  upon  economic 
conditions)  in  England  did  not  permit  the  experiment  to 
be  tried.  King  James  I  was  having  a  hard  time  to  keep 
down  the  rising  power  of  the  commercial  class.  He  was 
intriguing  with  reactionary  Spain  and  threatening  and 
fighting  rebellious  subjects  at  home  in  his  efforts  to  that 
end.  Naturally  the  founders  of  the  Virginia  Company 
were  of  the  rising  commercial  class.  They  were  estab¬ 
lishing  the  forms  of  democracy  and  representative  gov¬ 
ernment  in  their  colony.  The  first  representative  body 
in  America  was  the  Virginia  “House  of  Burgesses/’  which 
was  convened  in  1619.  James  was  assured  that  the 
London  Company  was  but  a  “seminary  to  a  seditious 
Parliament/’ 1  and  he  therefore  revoked  their  charter,  — 
the  sacredness  of  corporation  property  not  having  as  yet 
become  a  fundamental  principle  of  jurisprudence. 

Virginia,  consequently,  was  left  to  work  out  her  salva¬ 
tion,  like  New  England,  as  an  almost  independent  prov¬ 
ince. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  Southern  agriculture  was 
the  great  size  of  the  individual  estates.  This  rested  upon 
the  plantation  system,  a  system  inseparable  from  a 
one-crop  or  staple  agriculture  in  an  alluvial  country. 
The  first  members  of  the  London  Company  were  given 
grants  of  large  extent,  and  a  method  was  soon  provided 
by  which  these  could  be  extended  to  almost  any  size. 

1  Ibid. ,  Chap.  VI. 


44 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


“  Every  shareholder  who  met  the  cost  of  importing  an 
able-bodied  laborer,  man  or  woman,  was  entitled  to  fifty 
acres  in  the  first  division  and  fifty  additional  in  the 
second.  .  .  .  Unscrupulous  planters  obtained  grants 
in  consideration  of  passage  money  paid  for  members  of 
their  own  families  or  for  their  own  journeys  to  and  from 
England.  The  land  offices  grew  corrupt,  and  soon  it*  was 
not  deemed  necessary  to  bring  evidence  of  passage  paid. 
A  small  fee  handed  to  the  secretary  insured  the  solicited 
grant  with  no  questions  asked.  This  practice  became 
so  general  that  it  was  finally  (1705)  sanctioned  bylaw.  .  .  . 
At  the  close  of  the  century  the^average  size  of  a  Virginia 
estate  was  seven  hundred  acres,  and  many  a  planter 
owned  thousands.”  1 

These  estates  were  extremely  profitable  when  worked 
with  the  slaves  brought  by  the  New  England  and  British 
traders.  A  body  of  wealthy  planters  arose  resting  upon 
a  subject  population.  Tobacco  being  an  export  crop, 
and  demanding  the  entire  energies  of  those  raising  it, 
other  industries  were  neglected,  and  the  South  became 
dependent  upon  the  New  England  shipbuilders  and  mer¬ 
chants.  The  exhaustive  methods  of  agriculture  com¬ 
pelled  frequent  abandonment  of  the  old  fields  and  the 
conquest  of  new  ones  from  the  forest. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  larger  portion  of 

1  Coman,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  33.  Greene’s 
“  Provincial  America  ”  says :  “  Governor  Spottswood  signed  on  one 
occasion  several  grants  of  ten,  twenty,  and  forty  thousand  acres,  includ¬ 
ing  an  aggregate  of  over  86,000  acres  for  himself.  Theoretically  grants 
were  conditioned  upon  occupation  and  improvement,  but  the  land  ad¬ 
ministration  was  in  the  hands  of  the  governor  and  council,  or  sometimes 
of  the  councillors  alone,  who,  being  themselves  large  landholders,  were 
lax  in  enforcing  rules  which  operated  against  the  interests  of  their  class.” 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


45 


the  rich  alluvial  lands  along  the  coast  had  become  pri¬ 
vate  property.  Settlement  was  therefore  pushed  back 
upon  what  is  called  the  Piedmont  plateau.  This  was  the 
land  above  the  <<r fall  line”  of  the  rivers,  and  its  soil  and 
consequent  crops  and  social  organization  was  so  wholly 
different  as  to  have  the  most  important  effects  upon  the 
whole  history  of  this  region,  and  indeed  upon  the  history 
of  the  whole  country. 

This  physiographic  line  received  a  still  sharper  em¬ 
phasis  through  the  fact  that  it  chanced  to  coincide  with 
a  racial  division.  It  so  happened  that  when  in  1700  the 
line  of  westward  advance  of  settlement  in  Virginia  had 
just  reached  this  Piedmont  plateau,  and  when  the  rich 
alluvial  tobacco  land  had  all  been  divided  up  into  pri¬ 
vately  owned  plantations,  the  great  exodus  from  the 
north  of  Ireland,  which  has  already  been  described,  took 
place.1  The  upland  agriculture  and  the  social  organiza¬ 
tion  based  upon  it  was  from  the  beginning  totally  different 
from  that  of  the  tidewater  region.  The  back  country 
people  were  raisers  of  corn  and  livestock,  of  a  very  stunted 
kind  to  be  sure.  They  were  most  of  all  hunters  and 
trappers  and  explorers  of  the  wilderness.  From  them 
sprung  a  race  of  frontiersmen  and  Indian  fighters  that 
was  to  become  the  social  class  most  characteristic  of 
American  society. 

The  period  of  the  “  Commonwealth  ”  in  England  had 
an  important  effect  in  Virginia  as  well  as  in  New  England. 
This  effect  was,  however,  very  different.  While  in  New 
England  the  triumph  of  the  Puritan  in  the  mother  coun¬ 
try  stopped  immigration  almost  entirely,  it  gave  a  strong 
impetus  to  a  certain  sort  of  immigration  into  Virginia. 

1  John  Fiske,  “Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  456-461. 


46  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


A  number  of  the  Cavaliers,  finding  England  no  longer 
agreeable  as  a  place  of  residence,  came  to  the  New  World.1 
These  were  men  of  wealth  and  power,  and  they  retained 
their  power  in  Virginia.  This  was  .the  time  when  the 
families  of  Randolph,  Madison,  Mason,  Monroe,  Marshall, 
Washington,  and  many  others  whose  names  were  to  be 
famous  in  American  history  came  to  these  shores. 

Such  a  society  was  bound  to  develop  industrial  classes 
that  would  struggle  for  mastery.  Throughout  colonial 
times,  and  indeed  for  many  years  to  follow,  there  was 
always  one  main  line  of  cleavage.  With  variations  of 
numerous  kinds,  some  of  which  occasionally  obscured  the 
basic  division,  this  line  continued  almost  until  the  present 
generation.  This  was  the  conflict  between  the  “back 
country”  and  the  coast  district.  The  causes  of  this 
conflict  of  interest  were  numerous.  In  the  first  place, 
the  coast  population  was  a  trading  creditor  class  to  which 
the  back  country  people  were  indebted.  The  frontier 
always  offered  an  opportunity  of  escape  from  industrial 
servitude,  both  wage  and  chattel,  and  this  naturally 
displeased  those  who  profited  by  such  servitude.  The 
older  sections  have  always  opposed  further  expansion, 
sometimes  openly,  but  more  frequently  in  an  indirect 
and  sometimes  secret  manner.  England  long  endeavored 
to  restrict  settlement  to  a  narrow  strip  along  the  coast. 
The  merchants  of  the  coast  were  often  deeply  interested 
in  the  fur  trade,  and  the  advance  of  settlement  wiped 
out  this  trade.  There  was  always  complaint  on  the  part 
of  the  frontiersmen  that  they  were  overcharged  by  the 

1  John  Fiske,  “Old  Virginia  and  Her  Neighbors,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  27-28; 
Phillip  Alexander  Bruce,  “Economic  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seven¬ 
teenth  Century,”  Vol.  I,  p.  246,  Vol.  II,  pp.  487-581. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


47 


coast  merchants,  while  the  latter  retorted  with  com¬ 
plaints  of  the  nonpayment  of  debts.  The  relations  with 
the  Indians  proved  another  constant  source  of  friction. 
The  “back  country”  men  were  always  crowding  the  In¬ 
dian  from  his  hunting  grounds  and  coming  into  conflict 
with  him.  They  were  therefore  continually  asking  for 
troops  and  supplies  for  military  expeditions  and  forti¬ 
fications.  The  coast  residents,  wishing  to  use  the  Indian 
for  trading  purposes,  or  at  least  indifferent  to  his  depre¬ 
dations,  opposed  appropriations  for  protection  against 
his  attacks. 

In  1676  this  conflict  in  Virginia  broke  into  open  war 
as  “Bacon’s  Rebellion.”  There  were  peculiar  local  and 
personal  conditions  in  this  conflict  as  in  all  subsequent 
ones,  but  the  causes  assigned  for  the  struggle  are  prac¬ 
tically  those  given  above.  Governor  Berkeley  had  been 
sent  from  England  and  had  become  the  especial  repre¬ 
sentative  of  the  Cavalier  class  that  emigrated  at  this 
time.  His  character  may  be  judged  from  a  famous 
extract  from  his  report  to  the  Commissioners  of  Planta¬ 
tions  in  1670.  In  response  to  the  question, 

“What  course  is  taken  about  the  instructing  of  the 
people  within  your  government  in  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion  ?  ”  he  replied :  — 

“The  same  course  that  is  taken  in  England  out  of 
towns;  every  man  according  to  his  ability  instructing 
his  children.  We  have  forty-eight  parishes,  and  our 
ministers  are  well  paid,  and  by  my  consent  should  be 
better,  if  they  would  pray  oftener  and  preach  less.  But  of 
all  other  commodities,  so  of  this,  the  worst  is  sent  us ,  and 
we  had  few  that  we  could  boast  of,  since  the  persecution 
in  Cromwell’s  tyranny  drove  divers  worthy  men  hither. 


48  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


But,  I  thank  God,  there  are  no  free  schools ,  nor  printing , 
and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have  them  these  hundred  years ; 
for  learning  has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy  and 
sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them, 
and  libels  against  the  best  government.  God  keep  us 
from  both  !  ” 

Berkeley  was  a  direct  representative  of  the  royal  party 
in  England.  He  was  parceling  out  the  rich  plantation 
lands  of  Virginia  among  his  favorites  even  more  reck¬ 
lessly  than  had  been  the  custom  hitherto.  He  had  a 
subservient  House  of  Burgesses,  composed  of  the  rich 
planters,  and  he  refused  to  call  a  new  election.1  He  was 
directly  concerned  in  the  fur  trade  and  was  reported  to 
have  made  agreements  with  the  very  Indians  who  were 
massacring  the  settlers  on  the  frontier.  Finally  in 
1676  Bacon  gathered  an  army  in  spite  of  the  orders  of  the 
Governor,  defeated  the  Indians,  and  then  marching  to 
Jamestown,  compelled  the  election  of  a  new  House  of 
Burgesses,  and  was  a  successful  candidate  in  that  elec¬ 
tion.  When  Berkeley  continued  to  plot  against  his  life 
Bacon  fled  to  the  frontier  to  gather  another  army,  which 
he  again  led  first  against  the  Indians  who  had  risen  once 
more,  and  then  back  again  to  Jamestown,  which  was  then 
burned  to  the  ground. 

In  the  midst  of  these  stirring  events  he  was  taken  sick 
and  died,  and  Berkeley  took  such  bloody  vengeance  as 
to  call  forth  the  historic  remark  from  Charles  II:  “As 
I  live,  the  old  fool  has  put  to  death  more  people  in  that 
naked  country  than  I  did  for  the  murder  of  my  father.”  2 

1  Wilson,  “History  of  the  American  People,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  256-275. 

2  A  contemporary  report  by  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Council  contains 
some  sentences  that  throw  a  striking  light  on  the  character  of  Bacon’s 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


49 


The  story  of  Virginia  was  typical  of  that  of  Georgia 
and  the  Carolinas.  In  each  there  was  the  same  planta¬ 
tion  system,  the  same  division  of  interests  between  coast 
and  back  country.  In  the  Carolinas  the  fur  trade  was 
of  even  more  importance,  and  it  was  succeeded  by  a  stage 
which  was  of  little  importance  in  Virginia,  but  which  was 
to  appear  again  and  again  in  other  portions  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  —  the  ranching  industry.1 

The  Middle  Colonies 

In  very  many  senses  of  the  word  the  term  “Middle” 
applies  to  the  colonies  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New 
J ersey ,  and  D elaware .  In  climate  and  industrial  and  social 
structure  they  lay  between  the  South  and  New  England. 
The  soil  lacked  the  alluvial  richness  of  Virginia  and  the 

Rebellion:  “Bacon  gathers  about  him  a  Rabble  of  the  basest  sort  of 
People,  whose  Conditions  are  such  as  by  a  change  could  not  admit  of 
worse,  with  these  began  to  stand  in  Defyance  against  the  government.  .  .  . 
These  are  the  men  that  are  sett  up  for  the  good  of  ye  Country ;  who  for 
ye  ease  of  the  Poore  will  have  no" taxes  paied  .  .  .  would  have  all  magis¬ 
tracy  and  government  taken  away  &  sett  up  one  themselves  &  to 
make  their  good  Intentions  more  manifest  stick  not  to  talk  openly  of 
shareing  men’s  Estates  among  themselves.” 

1  “In  1708  it  was  estimated  that  over  50,000  skins  were  shipped  from 
Charleston  annually.  ...  In  1731  the  item  of  deerskins  alone  amounted 
to  225,000.  .  .  .  The  fur  trade  was  at  its  best  from  1721  to  1743.  After 
that  it  began  to  decline.  In  South  Carolina  it  declined  rapidly  after  the 
removal  of  the  Cherokees  from  the  larger  portion  of  the  up-country  in 
1755.  It  had  been  one  of  the  leading  industries  of  the  colony,  and  even 
as  late  as  1748  it  ranked  next  to  rice  in  the  value  of  the  amount  exported. 
The  total  value  of  the  exports  from  Nov.  1 , 1 747,  to  Nov.  1 , 1 748,  amounted 
to  £1,129,560,  of  which  rice  supplied  £618,750  worth,  and  the  fur  trade 
£252,300.  .  .  .  The  decline  of  the  fur  trade  in  the  decade  following 
indicated  that  the  first  phase  of  frontier  life  had  passed.  The  trader  had 
started  his  operations  on  the  coast,  and  as  the  frontier  receded  he  followed 
to  make  room  for  the  cow-pen  keepers.” 


E 


5° 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


barren  rockiness  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 
Hence  it  did  not  drive  its  population  to  the  sea  in  boats 
nor  attract  them  to  great  plantations,  but  built  up  in¬ 
stead  a  race  of  small  farmers  that  was  destined  for  many 
generations  to  be  the  dominant  factor  in  American  society. 
Its  rivers  were  long  enough  for  navigation,  but  did  not 
partake  of  the  marshy  character  of  the  James  and  the 
Roanoke.  They  were  preeminently  fitted  for  commerce 
rather  than  for  agriculture  or  manufacturing. 

New  York,  like  several  other  colonies,  was  started  as 
a  trading  venture  by  a  commercial  corporation,  in  this 
case  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Company.  Holland 
was  crowding  Spain  for  first  place  in  the  commercial 
world,  and  was  to  hold  that  position  for  a  moment  before 
being  pushed  back  by  rapidly  advancing  England.  In 
spite  of  the  great  wealth  that  came  from  the  fur  trade  in 
New  York,  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  like  all  the 
other  proprietary  companies  that  established  colonies 
in  America,  received  but  small  profits.  To  the  time  of 
the  control  by  this  Company  is  due  the  establishment 
of  the  “patroon”  estates.  In  its  efforts  to  secure  a 
permanent  agricultural  population  the  Company  granted 
great  tracts  of  country  reaching  back  for  miles  on  either 
side  of  the  Hudson,  together  with  certain  semi-feudal 
rights  to  those  who  brought  over  a  certain  number  of 
settlers.  In  few  cases  did  this  result  in  establishing 
permanent  settlements  such  as  were  intended,  but  it 
did  succeed  in  creating  a  mass  of  indefinite  legal  relations 
that  still  haunt  the  New  York  courts.1 

Pennsylvania  was  also  a  private  property  in  the  be- 

1  John  Fiske,  “Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies  in  America,”  Vol.  II, 

pp.  133-140* 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE 


51 


ginning,  but  was  established  largely  for  other  reasons 
than  personal  profit,  although  the  family  of  William  Penn 
sought  very  hard  to  derive  such  a  profit  from  it. 

Both  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  contained  a  large 
percentage  of  settlers  from  Continental  Europe.  Penn¬ 
sylvania  was  especially  the  refuge  of  the  Palatinate 
Germans.1 

None  of  the  Middle  colonies  endured  the  periods  of 
general  hardship  that  came  near  destroying  New  Eng¬ 
land  and  Virginia  in  the  cradle.  Almost  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  they  were  fairly  prosperous  and  grew  rapidly. 
From  the  first  the  agricultural  basis  of  the  country  was 
distinct  from  that  of  New  England  or  the  South.  It  was 
not  a  supplementary  industry  wrung  from  a  barren  soil 
to  assist  in  supporting  an  “amphibious  population.” 
Neither  was  it  the  plantation  production  of  a  great  staple 
for  export.  It  was  the  small,  diversified,  self-supporting 
farming  that  was  destined  to  be  for  many  years  the  largest 
element  in  American  industrial  life.  Moreover,  just 
because  this  form  of  farming  is,  for  the  early  stages  of 
capitalism  at  least,  the  most  economical,  it  was  not  long 
until  Philadelphia  was  the  leading  port  in  America,  pass¬ 
ing  even  Boston  in  the  amount  of  goods  exported.  Nor 
was  it  so  many  years  before  Boston  was  crowded  to  third 
place  with  New  York  at  the  head.  The  furs,  lumber, 
hides,  and  other  diverse  products  reached  a  greater  value, 
and  became  the  foundation  of  a  larger  and  more  stable 
commerce  than  cotton,  fish,  rum,  or  slaves. 

Moreover,  if  New  England  and  the  South  were  drawing 
vast  profits  from  rum  and  slaves  and  smuggling,  New 
York  was  not  without  an  even  more  shady  and  profitable 


1  See  pp.  15-17. 


52 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


commerce,  for  this  city  was  the  headquarters  of  seven¬ 
teenth-century  piracy.  This  was  the  golden  age  of 
piracy.  Spain  was  still  rich  in  commerce.  Her  ships 
were  bringing  valuable  cargoes  from  the  New  World  to 
the  Old.  But  Spain,  in  spite  of,  or  on  account  of,  the  ease 
with  which  she  was  obtaining  certain  forms  of  wealth 
from  America,  had  lost  her  place  as  the  foremost  com¬ 
mercial  nation.  She  had  now  been  relegated  to  a  posi¬ 
tion  much  inferior  to  either  Holland  or  England. 

Spain  and  Holland  having  lost  the  power  to  protect 
their  still  rich  commerce,  a  race  of  pirates  arose  who 
preyed  upon  the  merchant  ships  of  these  nations.  New 
York  was  one  of  the  chief  harbors  for  the  disposal  of 
piratical  plunder.1  The  entire  colonial  government 
became  involved  in  piracy.  The  pirates  were  forced  to 
share  their  booty  with  the  royal  governors,  and  this  fact 
was  cited  as  one  of  the  grievances  of  the  party  which 
opposed  these  governors.  This  matter  finally  climaxed 
with  the  notorious  affair  of  Captain  Kidd,  who  was  sent 
out  to  hunt  the  pirates,  but  found  piracy  more  profitable, 
and  was  himself  finally  hung,  —  not  because  he  was  worse 
than  the  others,  but  because  his  career  came  just  at  the 
close  of  the  period  when  piracy  was  almost  a  legitimate 
means  of  livelihood,  and  when  the  navies  of  England  and 
Holland  had  become  sufficiently  strong  to  prevent 
piracy. 

By  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  same  class 
distinctions  that  had  arisen  in  the  other  colonies  were 
apparent  in  New  York. 

“Long-continued  arbitrary  taxation  and  the  repeated 
failure  to  obtain  representative  government  had  caused 

1  John  Fiske,  “Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  222-235. 


THE  COLONIAL  STAGE  ! 


53 


much  popular  discontent.  Though  the  population  of  the 
little  city  was  scarcely  more  than  4000  souls,  a  distinc¬ 
tion  of  classes  was  plainly  to  be  seen.  Without  regard 
to  race  Jhe  small  shopkeepers,  small  farmers,  sailors, 
shipwrights,  and  artisans  were  far  apart  in  their  sym¬ 
pathies  from  the  rich  fur  traders,  patroons,  lawyers,  and 
royal  officials.”  1 

This  antagonism  broke  into  armed  rebellion  under 
Jacob  Leisler,  in  1689.  The  royal  Governor  was  over¬ 
thrown,  and  Leisler  ruled  for  a  time  in  his  place.  But 
later  came  reenforcements  from  England,  and  Leisler 
paid  the  penalty  of  his  rebellion  with  his  life.  “Had 
things  gone  as  Leisler  hoped  and  expected,”  says  John 
Fiske,  “the  name  of  Leisler  would  be  inseparably  asso¬ 
ciated  with  the  firm  establishment  of  representative 
government  and  the  first  triumph  of  democracy  in  the 
province  of  New  York.” 

The  same  political  lines  existed  in  Pennsylvania,  but 
did  not  find  violent  expression  until  1763,  when  a  body 
of  between  two  and  three  hundred  armed  frontiersmen 
moved  upon  Philadelphia.  Benjamin  Franklin  was  sent 
to  their  camp  by  the  Governor,  and  through  him  they 
presented  a  list  of  their  grievances.  They  complained 
of  the  unfair  method  of  districting  the  colony  by  which 
the  back  countries  were  given  a  much  smaller  number 
of  representatives  in  the  colonial  legislature  in  propor¬ 
tion  to  population  than  the  older  districts.  This  was 
a  universal  method  of  maintaining  the  domination  of  the 
commercial  classes  during  the  colonial  period.  The 
complaint  also  voiced  the  old  grievance  concerning  the 
Indians.  Indeed,  it  was  to  attack  some  Indians  who  had 

1  Ibid.,  Vol.  H,  p.  184. 


54 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


been  given  shelter  in  Philadelphia  that  they  had  moved 
upon  that  city.  The  paper  money  controversy  was  also 
an  issue  here  as  it  was  in  nearly  every  colony.1 

Having  voiced  their  complaints,  the  backwoodsmen 
disbanded  and  went  home,  so  that  Pennsylvania  was 
spared  the  bloodshed  that  had  taken  place  in  other  col¬ 
onies. 

When  a  society  begins  to  develop  class  antagonisms, 
it  is  a  sign  that  it  has  reached  a  point  where  independent 
existence  is  possible.  It  has  begun  to  have  a  social  life 
and  method  of  growth  of  its  own.  If  it  is  a  colony,  it  has 
arrived  at  a  critical  stage  where  only  a  slight  jar  will  be 
needed  to  start  separatist  tendencies. 

We  have  traced  each  of  the  main  groups  of  colonies 
up  to  the  point  where  this  independent  evolution  was 
in  progress.  For  a  period  their  history  has  much  in 
common,  and  can  therefore  be  best  treated  as  a  whole. 

1  Isaac  Sharpless,  “Two  Centuries  of  Pennsylvania  History,”  pp.  126, 
142-143, 154-155.  There  were  similar  uprisings  in  other  colonies.  Those 
of  Davis  and  Pate  in  Maryland  and  of  the  “Regulators  ”  in  the  Carolinas 
are  the  most  important  of  those  not  mentioned  in  the  text. 


CHAPTER  V 


GROWTH  OF  SOLIDARITY 

The  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  saw  the  center 
of  colonial  life  quite  thoroughly  transplanted  to  America. 
None  of  the  principal  colonies  had  any  essential  portion 
of  their  industrial  life  across  the  Atlantic.  They  still 
imported  much,  but  they  imported  it  in  their  own  vessels, 
and  under  the  control  and  for  the  profit  of  their  own 
merchants,  and  not  as  a  part  of  European  commerce. 

The  colonies  were  everywhere  drawing  closer  together. 
This  was  true  in  the  simple  geographical  sense.  The 
appearance  of  boundary  disputes  in  a  half  dozen  places 
is  significant  that  populations  were  now  approaching 
each  other  and  that  each  colony  was  no  longer  a  small 
settlement  surrounded  by  miles  of  wilderness.  The 
settlement  of  one  of  these  boundary  disputes  marked  a 
line  that  was  to  run  with  sinister  significance  through  a 
succeeding  century  of  American  history.  This  was  the 
line  between  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  which  was 
carefully  and  ceremoniously  surveyed  and  marked  by 
two  English  surveyors  in  1767,  from  whom  it  took  the 
name  of  “Mason  and  Dixon’s  Line.” 

Household  industry  had  developed  to  the  point  where 
each  colony  was  well-nigh  self-supporting,  so  far  as  the 
principal  necessities  of  life  were  concerned.  A  laboring 
class,  divorced  from  land  and  capital,  had  appeared  in 
each  of  the  colonies.  In  the  South  this  was  composed 

55 


56  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


largely  of  negro  chattel  slaves.  These  had  been  brought 
over  by  the  thousands  by  the  traders  of  New  and  old 
England.  Nearly  all  the  colonies  at  some  time  or  an¬ 
other  opposed  the  importation  of  slaves,  but  their  im¬ 
portation  was  a  profitable  business  for  the  mother  coun¬ 
try,  and  she  would  not  listen  to  any  restrictive  proposals. 
Indeed,  by  the  agreement  called  the  “  Asiento,”  signed  at 
the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  the  slave  trade  was  con¬ 
fined  to  a  monopoly  controlled  by  Queen  Anne  and  her 
royal  successors  and  court  favorites.  After  that,  all 
the  power  of  the  British  government  was  used  to  push 
this  traffic. 

In  the  Middle  colonies  the  laboring  population  was 
composed  largely  of  “ indentured  servants”  and  others 
who  were  in  a  more  or  less  open  form  of  slavery.  In  New 
England  these  forms  were  also  found,  and  here  there  were 
also  considerable  numbers  of  wageworkers. 

The  principal  highway  of  commerce  was  along  the 
coast,  and  with  increasing  population  and  diversity  of 
productions  the  coast  cities  were  much  more  closely  con¬ 
nected  with  each  other  than  with  the  “back  country” 
of  their  own  colony. 

Population  increased  with  great  rapidity  during  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1700  there  were 
about  250,000  people  in  the  thirteen  colonies.  By  1750 
the  population  had  increased  to  1, 3 70, 000. 1  This  increase 
of  population  was  forcing  settlement  back  from  the  sea- 
coast,  and  it  was  even  beginning  to  flow  down  into  the 
Ohio  valley.  These  “back-country”  settlements  were 
coming  into  close  proximity,  and  were  finding  many 
common  interests. 

1  R.  G.  Th waites,  “The  Colonies,”  pp.  265-266. 


GROWTH  OF  SOLIDARITY 


57 


The  establishment  of  a  crude  postal  system  in  1693 
did  much  to  unify  colonial  life.  This  system  began 
under  private  control,  but  was  placed  under  royal  man¬ 
agement  in  1707.  In  1737,  Benjamin  Franklin  was 
made  colonial  postmaster-general,  and  continued  in  that 
position  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  During 
this  time  the  system  was  extended  to  Canada  and  regular 
mail  routes  established  between  the  principal  cities. 

Every  Indian  outbreak  drove  the  colonies  closer  to¬ 
gether.  Of  even  greater  importance  as  a  unifying  force 
was  the  series  of  wars  between  England  and  various 
nations  of  continental  Europe.  The  colonies  were 
always  involved  in  these  wars,  since  both  France  and 
Spain,  who  were  arrayed  against  England,  had  colonies 
on  the  American  continent.  In  the  War  of  the  Austrian 
Succession,  the  New  England  colonists  fitted  out  an 
expedition  that  captured  Louisburg,  in  French  Canada. 
This  was  supposed  to  be  an  impregnable  fortress,  and 
the  fact  that  it  fell  before  colonial  troops  gave  a  feeling 
of  self-confidence  that  was  to  develop  into  one  of  inde¬ 
pendence. 

The  final  grapple  between  France  and  England  for 
the  mastery  of  the  commercial  world  came  in  what  was 
known  in  America  as  the  “ French  and  Indian  War,” 
ending  in  1763.  In  America  this  war  was  waged  for  the 
possession  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  pressure  of  an 
increasing  population,  that  had  crowded  the  colonies 
together  until  they  were  quarreling  over  boundary  lines, 
had  become  so  great  that  it  was  at  last  breaking  over  the 
mighty  barrier  of  the  Alleghenies.  But  here  it  was 
meeting  with  conflicting  claims  of  sovereignty.  France 
had  been  sending  her  explorers  all  up  and  down  the  tribu- 


58  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


taries  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  she 
claimed,  by  virtue  of  their  discoveries  and  subsequent 
occupation  by  an  army  of  fur  traders,  all  this  great  inland 
empire. 

Coming  from  the  Atlantic  side,  the  key  to  this  territory 
lies  at  the  point  where  the  Allegheny  and  Monongahela 
rivers  meet  to  form  the  Ohio,  and  where  the  city  of  Pitts¬ 
burg  now  stands.1 

Virginia  and  Pennsylvania  land  speculators  were 
already  plotting  this  country,  and  when  France  suddenly 
seized  the  gateway  to  the  Ohio  and  erected  a  fort  on  the 
present  site  of  Pittsburg,  England  promptly  protested.  As 
her  messenger  to  bear  this  protest  she  chose  a  young  sur¬ 
veyor,  who  had  been  using  his  position  to  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  land  companies  with  which  he  was  just  be¬ 
ginning  to  be  connected,  and  in  which  his  brother  was 
a  prominent  figure.  The  name  of  this  surveyor  was 
George  Washington.  His  efforts  to  persuade  the  French 
to  leave  were  in  vain;  and  when  war  broke  out  and  Brit¬ 
ish  soldiers  were  sent  to  America  he  was  chosen  to  co¬ 
operate  with  the  regulars  under  General  Braddock  in 
an  attack  upon  Fort  Duquesne. 

The  result  of  that  attack  was  to  add  greatly  to  colonial 
self-confidence.  Braddock  refused  to  accept  the  advice 
of  the  trained  Indian  fighters  who  accompanied  him, 
and  moved  on  through  the  wilderness  with  all  the  pomp 
and  ceremony  of  an  English  parade  ground.  Naturally 
he  was  ambushed,  and  when  he  tried  to  meet  the  craftiest 
wilderness  fighters  the  world  has  ever  known  with  the 
tactics  of  the  European  martinet,  his  forces  were  well- 
nigh  annihilated.  The  man  who  reaped  what  honors  were 

1  Frederick  A.  Ogg,  “The  Opening  of  the  Mississippi,”  p.  251. 


GROWTH  OF  SOLIDARITY 


59 


gained  that  day  was  Washington,  who,  with  the  trained 
frontier  fighters,  covered  the  retreat  of  the  British  regu¬ 
lars  and  prevented  a  wholesale  massacre.  It  did  not 
take  long  for  the  story  of  how  untrained  frontiersmen 
outfought  British  regulars  to  spread  throughout  the 
colonies.  The  result  was  to  take  away  the  halo  of  invin¬ 
cibility  that  had  surrounded  these  troops  and  to  replace 
it  with  something  like  contempt. 

The  growth  of  economic  unity  and  the  appearance  of 
military  necessity  caused  many  plans  to  be  set  forth 
for  the  political  unity  of  the  colonies.  Some  of  these, 
as  the  New  England  Confederation  of  1643  to  1660, 
were  quite  fully  organized.  Others,  as  Leisler’s  plan  of 
union  in  1690,  and  William  Penn’s  in  1697,  never  reached 
farther  than  the  theoretical  stage.  There  were  several 
attempts  at  union  on  the  part  of  royal  governors.  The 
main  unifying  effect  of  these  officials,  however,  was  in¬ 
direct  and  unintended.  The  common  hostility  to  them 
on  the  part  of  the  various  colonies  tended  to  create  a 
bond  of  sympathy  that  was  to  prove  of  value  as  a  basis 
of  a  hostile  movement  against  England  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution. 


CHAPTER  VI 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  American 
society  had  its  own  industrial  basis.  It  had  also  devel¬ 
oped  its  own  political  structure  to  correspond  to  this 
industrial  base.  In  the  course  of  this  development  the 
interests  of  the  ruling  classes  of  America  and  England 
had  grown  antagonistic. 

The  industrial  revolution  was  in  full  swing  in  England. 
The  steam  engine,  the  power  loom,  the  spinning  jenny, 
and  other  great  basic  revolutionary  inventions  were  just 
taking  form.  The  French  and  Indian  War  had  laid  the 
foundation  of  British  imperial  capitalism.  It  had  given 
England  dominion  over  India  as  well  as  Canada,  and  had 
raised  Prussia  to  the  dominant  position  which  made  pos¬ 
sible  modern  Germany. 

This  war  had  been  conducted  that  English  markets 
might  be  extended,  that  gold  might  flow  to  the  mother 
country,  in  short,  that  the  just  arising  capitalist  class 
might  prosper.  The  economic  theory  accepted  by  those 
who  controlled  British  industry  and  government  was 
what  has  been  called  the  “Mercantile  System.’’  Ac¬ 
cording  to  this  theory  one  of  the  great  objects  of  govern¬ 
ment  was  to  pass  laws  that  would  insure  a  favorable 
“balance  of  trade.”  For  this  purpose  legislation  was 
shaped  with  a  view  of  making  the  mother  country  the 
manufacturing  center  to  which  all  other  countries  sent 

60 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


6l 


raw  materials,  and  from  which  they  were  forced  to  buy 
manufactured  articles.  Colonies,  in  particular,  were 
expected  to  buy  all  the  things  they  needed  of  the  mother 
country.  This  theory,  backed  by  the  interests  of  the 
ruling  class  of  England,  is  the  explanation  of  the  Naviga¬ 
tion  Laws,  which  are  commonly  given  as  one  of  the  prin¬ 
cipal  causes  of  the  Revolution. 

The  recent  war  had  left  England  with  a  crushing  debt. 
This  was  an  added  reason  for  seeking  to  raise  revenue  in 
America  and  for  confining  American  trade  to  British  ports. 

Each  of  the  colonies  had  some  especial  interest  that 
came  into  sharp  conflict  with  the  actions  of  the  British 
government.  New  England,  the  head  and  front  of  the 
Revolution,  had  many  very  serious  grievances,  although 
some  of  them  would  hardly  be  looked  upon  as  purely 
patriotic  by  those  who  fix  opinions  in  present  society. 
We  have  already  seen  how  completely  New  England  was 
dominated  by  commercial  and  fishing  interests.  Her 
“ great  men”  were  all  merchants.  But  their  trade  was 
not  conducted  in  a  manner  that  is  commonly  supposed  to 
carry  social  preeminence.  David  H.  Wells,  in  his  article 
on  “ American  Merchant  Marine”  in  Lalor’s  “ Encyclo¬ 
pedia  of  Political  and  Social  Science,”  describes  these 
merchants  and  their  trade  as  follows :  — 

“  Nine-tenths  of  their  merchants  were  smugglers. 
One  quarter  of  all  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde¬ 
pendence  were  bred  to  commerce,  the  command  of  ships, 
and  the  contraband  trade.  Hancock,  Trumbull  (Brother 
Jonathan),  and  Hamilton  were  all  known  to  be  cognizant 
of  contraband  transactions,  and  approved  of  them.  Han¬ 
cock  was  the  prince  of  contraband  traders,  and,  with 
John  Adams  as  his  counsel,  was  appointed  for  trial  before 


62 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


the  admiralty  court  of  Boston,  at  the  exact  hour  of  the 
shedding  of  blood  at  Lexington,  in  a  suit  for  $500,000 
penalties  alleged  to  have  been  incurred  by  him  as  a 
smuggler.” 

>  Like  all  smugglers,  Hancock  cared  little  for  the  forms 
of  law,  and  trusted  to  bribery  and  violence  to  secure  his 
ends.  When  his  sloop,  Liberty ,  was  endeavoring  to  run 
the  customs,  he  first  tried  to  bribe  the  officials,  and,  this 
failing,  locked  up  the  guard  in  a  cabin  and  unloaded  the 
sloop  under  the  protection  of  a  gang  of  thugs  secured  for 
the  occasion.1 

For  many  years  this  smuggling  had  been  winked  at 
by  British  officials.  The  smugglers  were  not  averse  to 
dividing  their  profits  to  a  limited  extent  with  complaisant 
officials,  and  England  was  a  long  way  off  in  the  days  of 
sailing  vessels.  Even  in  England  there  had  been  a 
laxity  in  the  enforcement  of  smuggling  laws,  which  now 
suddenly  ceased.  In  England  enforcement  of  the  laws 
caused  little  more  than  a  suppressed  grumbling.  In 
America  it  led  to  rioting  and  then  to  revolution. 

In  America  the  suppression  of  smuggling  meant  the 
suppression  of  the  commercial  life  of  New  England.  We 
have  already  seen  that  one  of  the  principal  items  of  com¬ 
merce  was  the  famous  three-cornered  rum-molasses- 
slaves  trade.  One  of  the  first  of  the  new  taxes  was  a 
prohibitive  tariff  on  the  molasses  from  which  the  rum 
was  made. 

Those  citizens  of  New  England  who  were  not  concerned 
with  commerce  were  generally  interested  in  fishing,  and 
here  again  the  new  legislation  struck  fatal  blows.  The 

1  Charles  Stedman,  “The  History  of  the  Origin,  Progress,  and  Ter¬ 
mination  of  the  American  War,”  London,  1794,  Vol.  I,  p.  63. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


63 


trade  with  southern  Europe  was  forbidden,  and  for  a 
time  the  New  England  fishers  were  not  permitted  to  use 
the  Newfoundland  Banks. 

Another  important  and  profitable  article  of  smuggled 
commerce  was  tea.  This  was  brought  from  Holland. 
Here  the  interests  of  the  English  governing  classes  came 
into  direct  and  sharp  conflict  with  the  American  smug¬ 
glers.  The  East  India  Company  had  a  monopoly  of  the 
tea  trade.  This  company  was  owned  by  court  favorites. 
It  was  threatened  with  bankruptcy.  It  had  17,000,000 
pounds  of  tea  stored  in  English  warehouses.  On  this  it 
was  required  to  pay  a  shilling  a  pound  before  it  could 
sell  it  in  England.  The  English  government  proposed  a 
scheme  by  which  this  tea  could  be  sold  in  America  for 
less  than  it  would  cost  the  Englishmen  who  paid  the  local 
tax. 

The  orthodox  schoolbook  histories  assure  us  that  this 
offer  of  cheap  tea  to  Americans  was  an  attempt  to  “  bribe 
a  nation,”  and  that  the  Americans  indignantly  rejected 
the  bribe  and  threw  the  tea  into  Boston  Harbor  in  de¬ 
fense  of  a  principle.  This  high-minded  rejection  of  a 
bribe  by  John  Hancock,  the  man  who  was  mainly  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  famous  Boston  Tea  Party,  is  scarcely 
in  accord  with  what  we  have  learned  of  his  character. 
The  fact  is  that  had  the  tax  not  been  reduced  there  would 
have  been  little  objection.  It  was  the  reduction  itself 
and  not  the  principle  which  raised  the  famous  riot.  So 
long  as  the  East  India  Company  was  compelled  to  pay 
the  English  tax,  the  American  smugglers  could  undersell 
it  and  were  not  worried  about  questions  of  taxation,  or 
patriotism.  But  when  the  tax  was  rebated  the  East 
India  Company  could  undersell  the  smugglers.  .This 


64  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


destroyed  the  profit  in  smuggling,  something  infinitely 
more  effective  in  checking  that  crime  than  a  whole  fleet 
of  gunboats.  No  wonder  that  Hancock,  whose  popular 
title  was  the  “  prince  of  smugglers,”  called  a  mass  meeting 
and  with  the  aid  of  Samuel  Adams  organized  that  glorious 
mob  that  dumped  the  tea  in  Boston  Harbor  and  started 
the  Revolution,  —  at  least,  so  the  textbooks  tell  us. 

In  the  Middle  colonies  there  was  another  specific 
grievance  in  addition  to  the  fact  that  their  trade  with  the 
West  Indies,  upon  which  they  depended  for  specie,  was 
interfered  with  when  smuggling  was  restricted.  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  had  at  least  the  beginnings  of  a 
manufacturing  industry.  Bishop,  in  his  “  History  of 
American  Manufactures,”  assures  us  that,  “Even  at  the 
present  day,  many  countries  which  were  reckoned  elders 
in  the  family  of  nations  ere  the  ring  of  the  ax  was  heard 
in  the  forests  of  America,  are  essentially  less  independent 
in  regard  to  some  products  of  manufacture  than  were 
the  American  colonies  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.” 

According  to  the  theory  of  the  mercantile  system, 
these  budding  manufactures  were  injurious  to  the  mother 
country,  except  as  the  product  was  used  by  the  makers, 
and  laws  forbidding  them  were  passed  by  the  British 
Parliament.  There  is  little  evidence  that  the  laws 
against  manufacturing  were  ever  enforced,  but  the  fact 
that  the  long  disused  smuggling  acts  were  now  being 
revived  showed  the  possibility  of  similar  action  in  regard 
to  other  laws. 

There  was  another  grievance  which  the  Middle  colonies 
shared  with  the  South  and  which  was  much  more  im¬ 
portant.  In  these  two  sections  population  was  already 
pressing  toward  the  West.  There  had  been  a  rapid  in- 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


65 


crease  in  the  number  of  slaves  in  the  South  and  of  workers 
in  the  Middle  colonies.  As  a  result,  western  lands  were 
becoming  valuable,  and  men  prominent  in  colonial  life 
were  already  deeply  involved  in  western  land  schemes. 

Here  again  English  officials  came  into  direct  conflict 
with  the  interests  of  the  dominant  class  in  the  colonies. 
Great  fur  trading  companies  had  been  organized  by 
English  merchants,  and  these  companies  naturally  op¬ 
posed  western  settlement.  Furthermore,  it  was  well 
recognized  that  the  closer  the  colonies  were  kept  to  the 
seaboard,  the  easier  they  could  be  controlled. 

The  French  and  Indian  War  had  been  precipitated 
largely  by  these  land  speculators.1  They  embraced  the 
most  prominent  men  in  the  colonies.  Washington  was 
especially  active  along  this  line.  He  had  used  his  posi¬ 
tion  as  royal  surveyor  to  locate  lands  within  the  limits 
which  he  was  supposed  to  preserve  from  settlement.  He 
had  helped  to  maintain  what  would  now  be  called  a 
“land  lobby”  in  London  to  push  his  schemes.  When 
Parliament,  by  the  Quebec  Act,  extended  the  jurisdiction 
of  Canada  over  the  western  country,  his  interests  were 
directly  threatened,  and  had  the  Revolution  not  oc¬ 
curred,  he  would  have  lost  some  30,000  acres  of  land.  It 
would  be  foolish  to  say  that  Washington  became  a  revo¬ 
lutionist  because  of  his  western  land  interests.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  has  been  worse  than  foolish  to  depict  him 

1  Herbert  B.  Adams,  “Maryland’s  Influence  upon  Land  Cessions,”  in 
Johns  Hopkins'  University  Studies  in  History  and  Political  Science,  V ol. 
Ill;  Winsor,  “Westward  Movement,”  pp.  34-61 ;  Sumner,  “The  Finan¬ 
cier  and  Finances  of  the  Revolution,”  Vol.  II,  Chap.  XXXIII;  “Old 
South  Leaflets,”  Nos.  16,  27,  163;  Hunt,  “Life  of  MH’son,”  pp.  46-50; 
T.  Watson,  “Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson,”  pp.  150-153 ;  Schouler, 
“History  of  United  States,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  216-218. 


66 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


as  a  whole-souled  superman  unmoved  by  human  con¬ 
siderations. 

There  was  another  cause  which  was  more  widespread 
than  any  of  these,  and  which  undoubtedly  did  more  to 
make  the  Revolution  a  popular  movement  than  any  one 
of  those  previously  mentioned.  This  was  the  paper 
money  question.  With  regard  to  England  all  the  col¬ 
onies  were  debtors,  and  throughout  history  the  debtor 
class  has  sought  to  depreciate  the  currency. 

All  the  colonies  had  issued  paper  money  in  large  quan¬ 
tities.  In  all  save  Pennsylvania  it  had  greatly  depre¬ 
ciated  in  value.  In  some  colonies  it  had  become  prac¬ 
tically  valueless,  and  there  had  been  successive  issues,  or 
“  tenors,”  as  they  were  called,  each  of  which  had  been 
used  to  redeem  the  previous  one,  and  all  of  which  were 
almost  equally  worthless.  The  English  merchants  who 
did  business  in  the  colonies  were  compelled  to  accept  this 
paper  money  in  payment  for  the  goods  they  sold,  as  all 
of  the  colonies  had  enacted  most  stringent  laws  enforcing 
the  legal  tender  character  of  the  bills. 

This  antagonism  reached  a  climax  at  the  close  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  The  British  merchants  had 
sent  over  large  quantities  of  goods  during  this  war,  and 
were  now  pressing  for  settlement  in  something  besides 
the  depreciated  paper  money.  The  British  Parliament 
backed  them  up  in  this  demand,  and  enacted  a  law  for¬ 
bidding  further  paper  money  issues  in  the  New  England 
colonies,  and  restricting  them  or  providing  for  early 
prohibition  in  the  others. 

This  action  served  to  bring  an  entirely  new  set  of  sup¬ 
porters  to  the  cause  of  the  Revolution.  Paper  money 
had  already  been  a  cause  for  continuous  quarrels  within 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


67 


the  colonies.  The  wealthy  creditor  class  had  opposed 
the  paper  money,  and  the  country  debtor  class  had  favored 
it.  Elections  for  the  colonial  legislatures  had  turned 
upon  this  issue,  and  the  country  districts  with  their  debtor 
population  had  been  almost  universally  victorious.  This 
had  also  been  true  of  the  Southern  colonies,  which  were 
little  affected  by  the  Navigation  Acts  and  the  laws  re¬ 
stricting  manufacture.1  Now  all  the  fierce  partisanship 
that  had  often  broken  out  in  riots  against  the  “pluto¬ 
crats”  of  the  coast  cities  was  skillfully  turned  against 
the  British  government.  The  orthodox  histories  say 
very  little  about  this  point,  although  contemporary 
writers,  and  especially  English  ones,  place  it  almost  in 
the  front  rank  of  causes  of  the  Revolution.  Those  who 
have  written  our  histories  have  been  controlled  largely 
by  creditor  class  sympathies,  and  they  are  not  particularly 
proud  of  the  fact  that  one  of  the  prime  causes  of  the 
Revolution  was  the  desire  of  a  large  number  of  the  colo¬ 
nists  to  escape  paying  their  debts. 

It  was  especially  easy  to  manipulate  the  paper  money 
sentiment  into  revolutionary  action.  In  nearly  every 
colony  the  legislative  council,  chosen  by  a  more  or  less 
popular  vote,  was  controlled  by  the  debtor  class  and  was 
in  a  perpetual  fight  with  the  royal  governor.  This  fight 
usually  took  on  a  form  that  is  strongly  suggestive  of  a 
comic  opera  plot.  Each  year  the  legislature  would  pre¬ 
pare  certain  laws  providing  for  paper  money,  western 
extension,  protection  against  the  Indians,  or  some  other 
line  of  action  to  which  there  was  royal  objection.  Then 

1  This  is  treated  in  full  in  the  thesis,  “History  of  Economic  Thought  in 
Relation  to  Economic  Conditions,”  by  May  Wood  Simons,  to  which  the 
Harris  Prize  was  awarded  by  Northwestern  University. 


68 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


the  governor  would  veto  the  laws.  The  legislature  would 
then  refuse  to  vote  the  governor’s  salary.  He  would 
haggle  with  them  until  his  funds  gave  out  or  their  desire 
for  legislation  was  satisfied.  Then  he  would  sign  the 
laws  agreed  upon  and  would  receive  his  salary.  Over 
and  over  again  in  almost  every  colony  this  process  was 
repeated.  The  British  government  constantly  sought 
to  find  some  method  by  which  the  governor’s  salary  would 
be  assured  without  this  bargain  and  sale  process.  The 
colonists  steadfastly  opposed  all  proposals  to  pay  him 
from  any  income  save  the  colonial  treasury  controlled  by 
the  legislature. 

This  perennial  haggling  had  naturally  divided  the 
colonists  into  two  parties,  one  of  which  clung  to  the  gov¬ 
ernor,  while  the  other  followed  the  legislative  body.  As 
the  governor  was  the  representative  of  the  king,  it  was 
easy  to  turn  the  adherents  of  the  legislative  body  into 
revolutionists. 

These  legislatures  constituted  the  germs  of  an  inde¬ 
pendent  government.  For  the  colonists  they  were  the 
government  which  represented  colonial  interests.  When 
the  industrial  life  of  the  colonies  had  reached  the  point 
where  its  ruling  class  needed  a  government  to  further  its 
interests,  that  government  was  ready  to  its  hand  in  the 
colonial  legislatures. 

The  Stamp  Act,  which  provided  for  the  collection  of 
money  by  a  stamp  to  be  placed  upon  all  business  papers, 
was  hated,  not  so  much  because  it  was  “taxation  without 
representation,”  as  because  it  provided  that  the  funds 
obtained  through  its  operation  should  be  used  for  the 
payment  of  the  salaries  of  the  royal  governors.  If  this 
were  done,  there  would  be  an  end  to  the  bargain  and  sale 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


69 


method  of  securing  the  governor’s  signature.  This  meant 
that  paper  money  could  no  longer  be  issued,  and  that 
“stay  laws,”  which  prevented  the  collection  of  debts, 
could  no  longer  be  enacted. 

Parliament  not  only  forbade  the  issue  of  paper  money, 
but  aggravated  the  situation  by  passing  the  Navigation 
Laws  at  the  same  time.  These  closed  the  West  India 
trade,  the  principal  source  of  colonial  specie. 

At  every  point  the  industrial  life  of  the  colonies  had 
reached  the  stage  where  it  was  hampered  and  restricted 
by  its  connection  with  England.  Large  classes  of  the 
population  required  an  independent  government  to 
further  their  interests.  Evolution  along  the  lines  already 
drawn  could  proceed  only  with  independence.  Those 
who  stood  for  independence  were  the  most  energetic  and 
far-sighted  among  the  colonists.  In  these  great  basic 
facts  and  fundamental  conflicts  of  interest  do  we  find  the 
causes  of  the  Revolution,  and  not  in  petty  quarrels  over 
insignificant  taxes  and  abstract  principles  of  politics. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  REVOLUTION 

The  Revolution  succeeded  because  it  was  the  American 
phase  of  an  English  civil  war.  It  was  not  so  much  a 
conflict  between  the  colonies  and  the  English  govern¬ 
ment,  as  it  was  one  aspect  of  a  war  between  different 
divisions  of  the  English  people  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic.1 
Indeed,  it  was,  in  reality,  but  one  battle  of  a  great  world¬ 
wide  struggle  between  contending  social  classes.  It  was 
a  part  of  the  violent  upheaval  of  society  by  which  the 
capitalist  class  overthrew  feudalism  and  came  into  power. 

In  England  there  had  been  a  reaction  after  the  over¬ 
throw  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II.  Feudalism,  kingly  prerogative,  and  privi¬ 
lege  had  gained  a  new  lease  of  life.  The  Georges  were 
seeking  to  push  this  reaction  still  further.  In  this  they 
were  supported  by  the  landed  nobility  and  its  followers, 
who  constituted  the  Tory  party.  Against  this  party 
the  Whigs,  as  the  representatives  of  a  still  new  and  un- 

1  Justin  Winsor,  “Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,”  Vol. 
VI,  article  on  “The  Revolution  Impending,”  by  Mellen  Chamberlain, 
p.  i :  “The  American  Revolution  was  not  a  quarrel  between  two 
peoples,  ...  it  was  a  strife  between  two  parties,  the  conservatives  in 
both  countries  in  one  party,  and  the  liberals  in  both  countries  as  the  other 
party ;  and  some  of  its  fiercest  battles  were  fought  in  the  British  Parlia¬ 
ment.”  Page  2  :  “The  American  Revolution,  in  its  earlier  stages  at  least, 
was  not  a  contest  between  opposing  governments  or  nationalities,  but 
between  two  different  political  and  economic  systems.” 

70 


THE  REVOLUTION 


71 


developed  capitalism,  were  struggling.  Many  of  the 
supporters  of  the  old  merchant  class  remained  with  the 
Tories,  so  that  the  Whigs  were  coming  more  and  more  to 
be  dominated  by  and  to  express  the  interests  of  the  manu¬ 
facturers. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  dominant  interests  in 
the  revolutionary  party  in  America  were  those  from 
which  sprung  the  present  capitalist  class,  —  smuggling 
merchants,  manufacturers,  land  speculators,  etc.  But 
these  had  already  learned  how  to  draw  to  themselves 
and  use  in  their  interest  the  great  mass  of  the  laboring 
and  small  business  classes.  They  did  this  through  the 
paper  money  issue  and  the  appeal  to  the  defenders  of 
the  popular  local  legislative  assemblies.  We  shall  see  later 
how  these  issues  were  discarded  or  repudiated  when 
they  had  served  their  purpose.  It  would  be  foolish  to 
attempt  to  draw  the  class  lines  too  clearly  at  this  time. 
In  only  a  few  localities  was  the  factory  stage  present. 
All  industrial  stages  from  frontier  savagery  to  this  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  factory  system  existed.  Class  interests 
could  not  but  be  confused  in  such  a  society,  and  their 
political  expression  would  necessarily  confound  that 
confusion. 

On  the  whole,  however,  it  may  be  roughly  stated  that 
in  England  the  Whigs  stood  for  capitalism,  constitutional 
government,  freedom  of  trade,  and  the  powers  of  Par¬ 
liament,  while  the  Tories  represented  feudal  landed 
privileges,  kingly  prerogative,  and  increase  of  the  royal 
power. 

In  America  there  was  no  landed  nobility  with  interests 
of  its  own  to  defend,  and  no  king  to  exercise  a  royal 
power.  Nevertheless,  the  Tories  on  American  soil  were 


72 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


at  all  times,  up  to  the  very  close  of  the  Revolution,  fully 
as  numerous  as  the  revolutionists,  and  their  partisans 
always  insisted  that  they  were  in  a  great  majority.  We 
hear  much  of  the  “hireling  Hessians”  whom  the  British 
brought  to  America;  but  which  of  our  textbooks  tell  us 
that  there  were  25,000  Americans  enlisted  in  the  British 
army,  or  that  at  many  times  there  were  more  Americans 
under  the  British  than  the  colonial  flag? 

As  a  general  thing,  the  Tories  in  America  came  from 
some  of  the  following  classes :  (1)  the  personal,  political, 
and  business  followers,  dependents,  and  friends  of  the 
royal  governors;  (2)  the  nonsmuggling  merchants  of 
New  York  and  the  Middle  colonies,  whose  interests  were 
bound  up  in  the  British  trade,  and  who  suffered  from  the 
competition  of  the  smugglers ;  (3)  the  large  landholders 
of  the  same  states ;  (4)  the  clergy  who  were  attached  to 
the  Church  of  England,  and  such  of  their  followers  as 
they  could  influence.  In  addition  to  all  these  more  or 
less  active  classes  there  was  that  great  mass  of  the  popu¬ 
lation  that,  having  no  direct  interests  at  stake  in  a  change, 
remains  indifferent,  or  clings  to  things  as  they  are.1 

Each  of  these  two  classes  extended  its  ties  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  some  of  the  most  effective  blows  for  Amer¬ 
ican  independence  were  struck  by  those  who  fought  on 
English  soil. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  actual  fighting  of  the 
Revolution,  we  meet  with  many  facts  that  seem  to  be  of 
considerable  importance,  but  that  are  usually  omitted 

1  Justin  Winsor,  “Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America/’  Vol. 
VII;  article  on  “The  Loyalists  and  their  Fortune,”  by  George  E.  Ellis; 
M.  C.  Tyler,  “The  Royalists  in  the  American  Revolution,”  in  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Historical  Review ,  Vol.  I;  A.  C.  Flick,  “Loyalism  in  New  York,” 
Columbia  University  Series,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  1. 


THE  REVOLUTION 


73 


from  our  histories.  Perhaps  this  is  explained  by  the 
statement  of  S.  G.  Fisher  in  his  “True  History  of  the 
American  Revolution.” 

“The  people  who  write  histories  are  usually  of  the  class 
who  take  the  side  of  the  government  in  a  revolution; 
and  as  Americans,  they  are  anxious  to  believe  that  our 
Revolution  was  different  from  others,  more  decorous,  and 
altogether  free  from  the  atrocities,  mistakes,  and  ab¬ 
surdities  which  characterize  even  the  patriot  party  in  a 
revolution.  .  .  .  They  have  accordingly  tried  to  de¬ 
scribe  a  revolution  in  which  all  scholarly,  refined,  and 
conservative  persons  might  have  unhesitatingly  taken 
part;  but  such  revolutions  have  never  been  known  to 
happen.” 

The  truth  is  that  the  Revolution  was  to  a  large  extent 
started  and  maintained  through  methods  of  mob  violence 
and  terrorism,  such  as  civilized  war  hardly  tolerates  to¬ 
day.  One  of  the  first  hostile  acts,  while  the  colonists  were 
still  loudly  protesting  their  loyalty,  was  the  burning  of 
the  revenue  frigate  Gaspe,  that  had  very  foolishly  and 
tyrannically  dared  to  interfere  with  the  regular  business 
of  the  New  England  smugglers.  The  first  active  steps 
toward  organized  revolution  consisted  in  the  formation 
of  “Committees  of  Correspondence,”  a  sort  of  semi¬ 
secret  network  of  conspirators  extending  throughout  the 
colonies.  This  body  had  its  headquarters  in  Boston, 
with  Samuel  Adams,  one  of  those  natural  organizers  and 
agitators,  skilled  in  all  the  arts  of  arousing  the  masses 
that  have  ever  been  characteristic  of  popular  leaders . 1  This 

1  J.  K.  Hosmer,  “Sam  Adams,  The  Man  of  the  Town-Meeting,”  in 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  History  and  Political  Science,  1884, 
p.  34 :  “He  had  no  private  business  after  the  first  years  of  his  manhood, 


74 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

I 

chain  of  committees  early  took  up  the  work  of  terrorizing 
those  who  opposed  them.  The  story  of  the  methods 
used  to  accomplish  this  end  does  not  make  nice  reading. 
It  tells  of  the  whipping  of  unarmed  men  by  armed  mobs, 
of  the  wholesale  application  of  that  humorous  method 
of  torturing  which  is  peculiarly  American,  and  is  supposed 
to  have  originated  at  this  time,  tarring  and  feathering, 
and  riding  on  a  rail.  It  describes  the  burning  of  houses, 
the  “  confiscation  ”  of  property,  the  hanging  of  not  a  few, 
and  the  application  of  nearly  all  the  methods  of  mob 
violence  that  ingenuity  could  devise. 

One  of  the  weapons  which  was  most  widely  used,  both 
locally  and  nationally,  privately  and  officially,  was  the 
boycott.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  first  session  of  the 
Continental  Congress  was  to  declare  a  boycott  on  all 
English  goods.  This  was  two  years  before  the  Declara¬ 
tion  of  Independence,  while  the  colonies  were  still  making 
a  great  parade  of  their  loyalty.  Yet  this  resolution  pro¬ 
vided  not  simply  for  what  has  come  to  be  known  as  a 
“ primary”  boycott  against  English  goods.  It  went  on 
to  describe  most  elaborately  the  methods  to  be  used  to 
enforce  a  boycott  upon  any  merchants  who  should  handle 
British  goods,  or  who  should  trade  with  England  in  any 
way.1  The  Committees  of  Correspondence  then  saw  to  it 
that  this  boycott  was  enforced,  and  they  worked  to  such 

was  the  public  servant,  simply  and  solely,  in  places  large  and  small,  — 
fire- ward,  committee  to  see  that  chimneys  were  safe,  tax-collector,  mod¬ 
erator  of  town-meeting,  representative,  congressman,  governor.  One 
may  almost  call  him  the  creature  of  the  town-meeting.  His  development 
took  place  on  the  floor  of  Faneuil  Hall  and  Old  South,  from  the  time  when 
he  stood  there  as  a  master  figure ;  and  such  a  master  of  the  methods  by 
which  a  town-meeting  may  be  swayed  the  world  has  never  seen,”  etc. 

1  Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress,  Vol.  I,  pp.  23-26. 


THE  REVOLUTION 


75 


good  effect  that  importations  from  England  fell  off  one 
half  almost  at  once. 

When  the  statement  is  made  that  only  a  minority  of 
the  population  were  revolutionists,  the  question  naturally 
arises  as  to  how  this  minority  was  able  to  win  out.  The 
answer  is  found  in  the  fact  noted  by  every  writer  who  has 
studied  this  period  that  the  revolutionists  were  much 
more  active,  efficient,  cohesive,  and  belligerent,  more 
conscious  of  their  aims  and  more  determined  in  their 
pursuit  than  any  other  portion  of  society.1  This  is  an 
invariable  characteristic  of  a  rising  social  class.  The 
capitalist  class  was  then  the  coming  class.  It  was  the 
class  to  whom  the  future  belonged.  It  was  the  class 
whose  victory  was  essential  to  progress.  The  Tories, 
with  their  adherence  to  the  royal  governors  and  to  the 
old  system  of  social  castes  and  legal  privileges,  were 
harking  back  to  an  already  dead  society.  They  had 
neither  ideas  nor  ideals  to  inspire  them.  The  economic 
system  to  which  they  belonged  was  already  crumbling 
into  the  dust  of  history. 

In  so  far  as  the  military  operations  on  American  soil 
are  concerned,  they  can  best  be  understood  if  we  recall 
the  geographical  features  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  Through¬ 
out  history  the  strategic  line  of  attack  and  defense  on 
that  coast,  from  either  a  commercial  or  a  military  point 
of  view,  has  been  the  valley  of  the  Hudson.  If  the  Brit¬ 
ish  could  occupy  this  valley,  rebellious  New  England 
would  be  cut  off  from  the  other  colonies,  and  a  base  of 
supplies  and  operations  created  from  which  other  mili- 

1  The  revolutionists  were  also  the  armed  and  trained  riflemen  of 
society.  It  was  the  frontiersmen  who  captured  Burgoyne,  won  the  battle 
of  King’s  Mountain,  and  generally  furnished  the  fighters  at  critical  times. 


76  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


/ 


tary  movements  of  conquest  would  have  been  compara¬ 
tively  easy.  Boston,  the  center  of  revolt,  and  Phila¬ 
delphia,  the  largest  city,  could  have  been  occupied  almost 
at  will,  and  a  brief  raiding  expedition  would  have  sufficed 
to  have  subdued  the  Southern  colonies. 

At  the  opening  of  hostilities  Boston  was  already  oc¬ 
cupied  by  a  British  army  under  General  Gage.  He  per¬ 
mitted  a  portion  of  his  force  to  be  drawn  away  to  Lexing¬ 
ton  in  the  effort  to  destroy  the  military  stores  that  the 
colonists  had  accumulated,  and  saw  a  large  portion  of  this 
detachment  wiped  out  by  a  guerrilla  attack.  Then 
came  the  occupation  of  Bunker  (or  Breed’s)  Hill,  which 
commanded  Boston.  The  British  army  attacked  the 
American  intrenchments,  and  was  successful,  but  at  a 
terrible  cost.  However,  the  British  still  occupied  Boston, 
and  the  American  army  was  little  more  than  a  disor¬ 
ganized  mob,  totally  incapable  of  conducting  any  effec¬ 
tive  siege. 

At  this  moment  a  most  important  change  took  place 
in  the  command  of  the  British  troops.  General  Sir 
William  Howe  was  given  charge.  The  important  fact 
about  General  Howe  was  that  he  was  a  most  intensely 
partisan  Whig,  and  that  he  had  been  one  of  the  strongest 
defenders  of  the  colonies  in  the  British  Parliament.  He 
was  absolutely  opposed  to  any  use  of  force  against  them ; 
believed  them  to  be  in  the  right  and  entitled  to  victory. 
In  other  words,  the  work  of  conquering  the  colonists  was 
turned  over  to  a  man  who  was  anxious  that  they  should 
not  be  conquered. 

This  was  the  situation  when  George  Washington  was 
made  commander  iri  chief  of  the  American  forces.  He 
at  once  prepared  to  conduct  as  much  of  a  siege  of  Boston 


THE  REVOLUTION 


77 


as  was  possible.  He  had  an  army  without  guns,  am¬ 
munition  (Bunker  Hill  was  lost  because  the  American 
ammunition  was  exhausted),  cannon,  or  even  food  and 
clothing.  Some  small  cannon  that  had  been  captured  by 
Ethan  Allen  at  Fort  Ticonderoga  were  hauled  by  the 
New  England  farmers  on  sleds,  and  at  last  preparations 
were  made  for  actual  hostilities. 

Howe’s  conduct,  in  the  meantime,  had  been  most 
mysterious  if  we  consider  it  as  that  of  a  sincere  British 
general.  He  was  a  man  of  military  ability.  He  was 
located  in  a  city  that  had  once  been  rendered  untenable 
by  the  occupation  of  a  hill  that  commanded  it.  It  is  a 
first  principle  of  military  tactics  that  all  elevations  com¬ 
manding  a  position  must  be  occupied  if  the  position  is  to 
be  defended.  Yet  Howe  lay  in  Boston  all  winter  without 
occupying  Dorchester  Heights,  which  commanded  the 
city,  and  was  apparently  very  much  surprised  when 
Washington  at  last  took  the  hint  and  threw  up  some 
intrenchments  on  that  position.  Howe  then  discovered 
the  very  obvious  fact  that  his  position  in  Boston  was 
endangered.  He  had  plenty  of  ships  in  the  harbor;  and 
the  artillery  of  that  day  in  the  hands  of  such  artillery¬ 
men  as  were  to  be  found  among  the  Continentals  was 
not  particularly  dangerous  to  a  retreating  army.  More¬ 
over,  there  had  scarcely  been  a  time  during  the  previous 
winter  when  he  could  not  have  completely  routed  the 
American  forces,  as  these  were  practically  without  am¬ 
munition. 

Then,  at  a  time  when  the  Revolution  was  languishing 
for  lack  of  the  munitions  of  war,  when  New  York  was 
unguarded  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  Howe  sailed 
away  to  Halifax,  leaving  behind  him  over  two  hundred 


78  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


cannon,  several  tons  of  powder,  and  a  great  stock  of 
other  military  stores.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  of  any 
greater  service  he  could  have  extended  to  the  revolution¬ 
ary  cause,  unless  he  had  marched  his  troops  directly 
into  Washington’s  camp  and  turned  them  over  to  the 
American  general,  and  there  were  some  serious  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  doing  this.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  this 
auspicious  moment  was  seized  to  issue  the  Declaration 
of  Independence? 

A  few  days  before  that  declaration,  however,  General 
Howe  came  back  to  New  York,  which  he  occupied  with¬ 
out  resistance,  showing  that  his  trip  to  Halifax  was 
unnecessary.  He  was  accompanied  by  his  brother, 
Admiral  Howe,  who  was  equally  partisan  to  the  Ameri¬ 
can  cause.  Here  General  Howe  sent  back  requests  for 
reenforcements,  which  were  promptly  sent  him,  until 
he  had  between  35,000  and  40,000  well  armed,  fed,  and 
disciplined  troops  with  which  to  fight  between  5000  and 
15,000  ragged,  ill-fed,  and  poorly  equipped  soldiers  under 
Washington.  So  small  were  the  resources  of  the  Ameri¬ 
cans  that  it  is  doubtful  if  their  military  supplies  would 
have  permitted  six  weeks  of  active  fighting  before  they 
would  have  been  completely  exhausted  and  scattered. 
But  Howe  conducted  no  active  campaign.  On  the 
contrary,  he  was  careful  never  to  follow  up  any  advan¬ 
tage  which  he  gained.  He  would  defeat  the  army  under 
Washington,  but  always  gave  ample  time  for  recupera¬ 
tion.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  recognized  that 
Washington  showed  himself  a  brilliant  general,  fully 
capable  of  utilizing  all  the  opportunities  that  Howe  so 
kindly  gave  him. 

The  next  year,  1777,  brought  the  turning  point  of  the 


THE  REVOLUTION 


79 


war.  The  British  occupied  New  York  with  many  more 
men  under  Howe  than  were  really  needed  to  hold  the 
position.  If  now  the  Hudson  Valley  could  be  occupied 
throughout  its  length,  the  backbone  of  the  colonies  would 
be  broken.  Accordingly  Burgoyne  was  sent  down  from 
Canada,  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain,  to  occupy  that  valley. 
General  Howe  was  to  detach  some  of  his  superfluous 
troops  and  send  them  up  the  Hudson  to  meet  Burgoyne. 
Howe  did  not  do  this.  He  did  not  even  conduct  an  ener¬ 
getic  campaign  against  that  portion  of  the  American 
army  which  was  near  him.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  so 
mild  in  his  efforts  that  the  Americans,  with  a  much 
smaller  force  than  Howe,  were  permitted  by  him  to  divide 
their  forces  and  to  send  a  portion  under  Gage  to  assist  in 
the  attack  upon  Burgoyne.  Under  these  circumstances 
the  latter  soon  found  himself  much  outnumbered,  in  a 
hostile  country,  without  supplies  and  no  prospect  of 
relief,  and  was  compelled  to  surrender. 

By  this  time  the  British  government  had  become 
thoroughly  aroused  to  the  attitude  of  Howe.  Criti¬ 
cisms  of  him  became  so  sharp  that  he  resigned  and  went 
back  to  England,  where  he  was  the  subject  of  a  Parlia¬ 
mentary  inquiry  that  developed  the  facts  as  set  forth. 
He  was  too  powerful  politically  to  be  punished,  but 
throughout  the  Revolution  the  favorite  toast  at  banquets 
of  American  officers  was  “ General  Howe”;  but,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  no  school  history  considers  these  facts 
worthy  of  mention. 

With  the  fall  of  Burgoyne  and  the  return  of  Howe  to 
England  the  war  took  on  a  different  aspect.  It  was  more 
rigorously  prosecuted  in  America,  so  much  so  that  at 
times  it  appeared  as  if  the  Revolution  would  fail  and 


8o 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


become  only  a  rebellion.  Its  scope,  however,  had  wi¬ 
dened.  The  old  commercial  rivals  of  England  had  joined 
hands  with  the  colonies.  France,  Spain,  and  Holland 
extended  aid  in  the  form  of  money,  munitions  of  war,  and 
even  troops  and  battleships.  England,  beset  upon  all 
sides,  was  unable  to  send  the  troops  that  were  needed, 
and  that  had  been  so  plentiful  when  Howe  was  playing 
at  war.  Cornwallis  was  hemmed  in  at  York  town  by 
the  allied  French  and  Continental  troops,  was  compelled 
to  surrender,  and  independence  was  assured. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 

The  surrender  of  Cornwallis  in  America  was  followed 
by  a  Whig  victory  in  Parliament.  On  the  27th  of  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1782,  this  resolution  was  carried  in  the  House  of 
Commons :  — 

“  That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  House  that  a  further 
prosecution  of  offensive  war  against  America  would, 
under  present  circumstances,  be  the  means  of  weakening 
the  efforts  of  this  country  against  her  European  enemies, 
and  tend  to  increase  the  mutual  enmity  so  fatal  to  the 
interests  both  of  Great  Britain  and  America.” 

One  month  later  the  Tory  ministry  fell,  and  the  Eng¬ 
lish  allies  of  the  American  army  came  into  power  in  the 
home  country.  In  some  ways  the  English  Whigs  were 
more  consistent  and  more  revolutionary  than  those  who 
had  fought  under  the  Continental  flag.  They  curbed 
the  power  of  the  king  and  the  House  of  Lords,  made  the 
House  of  Commons  supreme,  and  laid  the  foundations 
for  a  much  more  truly  democratic  government  than  this 
country  has  yet  enjoyed.  One  reason  for  this  is  to  be 
found  in  the  existence  in  England  of  a  powerful  landed 
interest  which  was  in  such  sharp  antagonism  to  the  rising 
industrial  capitalists  that  the  latter  felt  keenly  the  need 
of  continuous  curbing  of  their  opponents. 

No  such  condition  existed  in  America.  Here  the 
antagonism  of  classes  was  rather  between  the  industrial 

81 


G 


82 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


and  mercantile  creditors  on  the  coast  and  the  farmer 
debtors  of  the  interior.  These  latter  were  apt  to  make 
an  alliance  with  the  wageworkers  of  the  larger  cities, 
although  these  were  too  little  developed  to  play  an 
important  part.  Consequently  the  richer  class  in  the 
colonies  did  not  feel  the  need  of  any  democratic  measures 
in  order  to  secure  allies  from  the  poorer  classes  in  a  fight 
against  a  crown  and  landed  nobility,  as  was  the  case  in 
England. 

We  see  the  effect  of  this  condition  in  the  character  of 
the  state  governments  formed  during  the  Revolution. 
Practically  all  of  these  were  supposed  to  be  modeled 
after  the  British  government.  But  there  was  an  im¬ 
portant  difference.  Since  the  colonists  had  left  England 
the  crown  and  the  House  of  Lords  had  ceased  to  hold 
a  dominant  position  in  the  English  government,  and  their 
importance  was  decreased  still  further  by  the  parlia¬ 
mentary  conflict  which  was  being  waged  simultaneously 
with  the  Revolutionary  War  in  America. 

In  the  state  governments  which  were  formed  during 
the  war  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  colonial  establish¬ 
ments,  the  second  chamber,  corresponding  to  the  House 
of  Lords,  was  given  equal  power  with  the  lower  House. 
Moreover,  this  upper  House,  instead  of  being  represen¬ 
tative  of  a  particular  form  of  property  relation,  and  that 
a  declining  one,  was  made  representative  of  property 
alone,  through  very  high  property  requirements  for 
membership  and  suffrage.  Property  qualifications  for 
voting  were  characteristic  of  all  the  state  constitutions 
adopted  during  the  Revolution,  with  the  single  exception 
of  Pennsylvania.  This  would  seem  to  show  that  all  the 
fine  talk  about  the  rights  of  men  and  “  taxation  without 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


§3 


representation ”  and  “all  men  are  created  equal”  was 
intended  only  to  secure  popular  support  with  which  to 
pull  some  very  hot  chestnuts  out  of  the  fire  for  the  ruling 
class  of  the  colonies. 

The  nature  of  these  state  governments  gives  an  idea 
of  the  political  forms  desired  by  ruling  class  interests  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The  national  government 
was  too  filmy  a  thing  to  tell  any  story  clearly.  And 
yet  it  is  possible  that  this  very  indefiniteness  tells  an 
equally  clear  story,  for  it  corresponded  very  closely  to 
the  lack  of  a  general  industrial  life.  There  were  very 
few  interests  common  to  all  the  colonies,  and  these  few 
were  not  of  a  kind  to  overcome  the  immediate  separatist 
ones. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  there  was,  of  course,  no 
central  government.  For  the  revolutionary  forces  its 
place  was  taken  by  the  conspiratory  “Committees  of 
Correspondence.”  From  these  sprang  the  “Continental 
Congress,”  which  took  to  itself  more  and  more  power  as 
the  Revolution  continued.1 

It  was  this  body  that  controlled  the  movements  of  the 
army,  gave  Washington  his  commission,  declared  in¬ 
dependence,  made  alliances  with  France,  Spain,  and 
Holland,  borrowed  money  and  pledged  the  credit  of  the 
combined  colonies  for  its  repayment,  issued  an  incon¬ 
vertible  currency,  granted  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal, 
built  a  navy,  and  carried  on  peace  negotiations  when  the 
war  was  ended.  Yet  this  body  had  no  legal  existence, 
no  definite  powers,  none  of  the  things  which  are  supposed 
to  be  the  essential  foundation  of  a  legislative  body  until 
the  war  was  over,  its  important  work  completed,  and  its 

1  John  Fiske,  “The  Critical  Period  of  American  History,”  pp.  92-93. 


84  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

life  about  to  end.  The  Articles  of  Confederation,  which 
for  the  first  time  provided  these  things,  were  not  adopted 
by  the  various  states  until  1781,  and  by  that  time  the 
Continental  Congress,  to  which  those  articles  for  the  first 
time  gave  a  legal  sanction,  had  ceased  to  play  any  im¬ 
portant  function. 

Just  as  the  Confederation  was  born,  however,  it  was 
saved  from  the  calamity  of  complete  insignificance  by 
being  made  a  property  holder.  One  of  the  obstacles  to 
all  efforts  looking  toward  even  so  loose  a  union  as  that 
of  the  Confederation  had  been  the  possession  by  several 
of  the  states  of  great  tracts  of  western  land.  This  land 
was  claimed  under  old  royal  grants,  all  of  which  were 
drawn  before  anything  was  known  about  the  internal 
geography  of  the  country,  and  several  of  which  read 
“  from  sea  to  sea.”  Some  of  the  smaller  states,  Maryland 
in  particular,  insisted  that  these  lands  must  be  surren¬ 
dered  as  a  prelude  to  any  plan  of  confederation.  This 
was  at  last  agreed  to,  and  Maryland  made  possible  the  for¬ 
mation  of  the  Confederation  in  1781.  This  action  ulti¬ 
mately  assured  the  existence  of  a  national  government. 
The  Confederation  now  had  a  territory  to  govern  out¬ 
side  the  boundaries  of  the  federated  states.  This  terri¬ 
tory,  although  thinly  populated,  was  almost  as  large  as 
all  the  thirteen  original  states.  Finally,  when  Manasseh 
Cutler  appeared  before  the  Continental  Congress  with 
a  proposition  to  purchase  large  tracts  of  this  land,  and 
it  began  to  appear  not  simply  in  the  light  of  a  territory 
to  be  governed,  but  also  as  a  source  of  income,  Congress 
roused  from  its  lethargy  to  almost  its  only  important 
action  since  it  had  been  legally  constituted,  —  the  passing 
of  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


85 


This  ordinance  providing  for  the  organization  and 
government  of  the  great  territory  between  the  Ohio,  the 
Mississippi,  the  Great  Lakes,  and  the  Alleghenies  con¬ 
tains  some  remarkable  provisions.  There  is,  of  course, 
the  famous  one  upon  which  the  thirteenth  amendment 
to  the  national  constitution  was  afterward  based,  pro¬ 
viding  that  “  There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involun¬ 
tary  servitude  in  the  said  territory,  otherwise  than  in 
the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall  have 
been  duly  convicted.”  But  there  is  also  a  complete  “bill 
of  rights,”  providing  for  religious  liberty,  the  right  of 
habeas  corpus ,  and  trial  by  jury,  representative  govern¬ 
ment,  bail  for  all  save  capital  offenses,  moderate  fines, 
no  cruel  and  unusual  punishments,  and  also  for  the 
foundation  of  a  public  school  system.  This  latter  pro¬ 
vision  was  to  be  little  heeded  until  a  movement  of 
the  working  class  should  force  this  issue  upon  the 
people.  These  provisions,  however,  when  contrasted 
with  the  proceedings  of  the  constitutional  convention, 
show  that  the  Continental  Congress  had  become 
much  more  of  a  popular  body  than  was  the  one  that 
wrote  the  present  fundamental  law  of  the  United 
States. 

During  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  in  spite  of  this  one 
very  important  action  by  the  Continental  Congress,  the 
real  governing  power  in  the  country  had  been  the  group 
of  individuals  who  were  in  the  midst  of  events  and  were 
making  history  rather  than  recording  its  results  in  legis¬ 
lation.  These  were  the  men  who  best  incarnated  the 
spirit  of  the  rising  social  class.  They  were  willing  that 
the  work  of  legislation,  like  the  work  of  fighting  in 
the  ranks,  should  be  done  by  others,  providing  their 


86 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


hands  were  upon  the  levers  that  moved  the  social 
machinery.1 

The  American  Revolution,  like  most  wars,  was  fought 
by  those  who  had  least  interest  in  its  outcome.  TKe 
workers  and  “embattled  farmers/’  who  as  “minute  men” 
at  Concord  “fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world,”  and 
left  the  imprint  of  their  bleeding  feet  at  Valley  Forge 
and  Yorktown,  found  themselves  at  the  close  of  the  war 
hopelessly  indebted  to  the  mercantile  and  financial  class 
of  the  coast  cities.  The  Continental  currency,  with 
which  the  government  had  paid  for  supplies,  had  now 
become  valueless  in  the  hands  of  the  producers  of  wealth. 
One  hundred  and  twelve  million  dollars  had  been  thus 
extorted  from  the  people.  Taxes  were  most  inequitably 
distributed,  the  poll  tax  being  one  of  the  most  common 
methods  of  taxation.  In  Massachusetts  it  was  proposed 
to  collect  over  five  million  dollars  by  this  method  from 
90,000  taxpayers.  The  fisheries  were  almost  wiped  out 
during  the  war  and  only  slowly  revived  with  the  coming 
of  peace.2  McMaster  says  of  Vermont:  “One  half  of  the 
community  was  totally  bankrupt,  the  other  half  plunged 
in  the  depths  of  poverty.”  Of  another  state  he  says: 
“It  was  then  the  fashion  of  New  Hampshire,  as  indeed 
it  was  everywhere,  to  lock  men  up  in  jail  the  moment 
they  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  owe  their  fellows  a  six- 

1  Woodrow  Wilson,  “History  of  the  American  People,”  Vol.  Ill,  p.  22  : 
“The  common  affairs  of  the  country  had  therefore  to  be  conducted  as 
the  revolution  had  in  fact  been  conducted,  —  not  by  the  authority  or  the 
resolutions  of  the  Congress,  but  by  the  extraordinary  activity,  enterprise, 
and  influence  of  a  few  of  the  leading  men  in  the  States  who  had  union  and 
harmonious  common  effort  at  heart.” 

2  American  State  Papers,  “Commerce  and  Navigation,”  Vol.  I,  pp. 
6-21. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


87 


pence  or  shilling.  Had  this  law  been  rigorously  executed 
in  the  autumn  of  1785,  it  is  probable  that  not  far  from 
two  thirds  of  the  community  would  have  been  in  the 
prisons.” 

The  burden  of  debt  had  been  multiplied  by  the  de¬ 
preciation  of  currency,  and  the  attempt  to  collect  it  in 
specie.  To  again  quote  McMaster:  “Civil  actions  were 
multiplied  to  a  degree  that  seems  scarcely  credible.  The 
lawyers  were  overwhelmed  with  cases.  The  courts  could 
not  try  half  that  came  before  them.”  1 

The  wealthy  citizens  who  had  sent  their  money  to  war 
that  it  might  breed  and  multiply  found  their  bonds  would 
be  of  little  value  unless  taxes  could  be  squeezed  from  the 
workers.  The  Confederacy  had  no  power  to  levy  taxes, 
or  to  collect  money  in  any  way  save  by  the  sale  of  lands 
and  bonds  and  the  issuance  of  paper  money.  There  were 
no  purchasers  for  any  of  these  commodities. 

The  manufacturers  who  had  revolted  against  British 
tariffs  were  now  looking  for  a  national  government  to 
assist  them  with  tariff  legislation.  The  Revolution,  by 
almost  completely  stopping  importations,  had  acted  on 
the  budding  manufacturers  like  a  prohibitive  tariff. 
Moreover,  the  exigencies  of  war  created  an  abnormal 
demand  for  certain  articles,  and  the  Continental  Congress 
devoted  no  small  portion  of  its  energies  to  efforts  to  en¬ 
courage  domestic  manufactures.  The  moment  the  war 
ended,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  a  flood  of  importa¬ 
tions.  British  manufacturers,  especially,  were  accused 
of  “dumping”  goods  upon  the  market  at  less  than  Lon¬ 
don  prices  for  the  especial  purpose  of  preventing  the 

1  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I, 
p.  302. 


88 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


growth  of  American  manufactures.  We  are  not  surprised 
to  learn  that  “By  no  class  of  the  community  was  the 
formation  of  the  new  government,  and  its  general  adop¬ 
tion  by  the  states,  more  zealously  urged  than  by  the 
friends  of  American  manufactures.”  1 

The  paramount  interest  of  the  time  was  commercial, 
and  it  was  fitting  that  commerce  should  play  the  largest 
part  in  the  formation  of  the  new  government.  Com¬ 
merce  demanded  a  powerful  central  government.  No 

other  could  afford  protection  in  foreign  ports,  provide 

. 

for  uniform  regulations  throughout  the  country,  make 
and  enforce  commercial  treaties,  and  maintain  the  gen¬ 
eral  conditions  essential  to  profitable  trading.  As 
Fisher  Ames  said  in  the  first  Congress :  — 

“I  conceive,  sir,  that  the  present  constitution  was 
dictated  by  commercial  necessity,  more  than  any  other 
cause.  The  want  of  an  efficient  government  to  secure 
the  manufacturing  interests,  and  to  advance  our  com¬ 
merce,  was  long  seen  by  men  of  judgment,  and  pointed 
out  by  patriots  solicitous  to  promote  the  general  welfare.”2 

All  of  these  interests  were  confined  to  the  New  England 
and  Middle  states.  Unless  a  class  could  be  found  in  the 
South  that  was  also  interested  in  a  centralized  govern¬ 
ment,  there  could  be  little  hope  of  forming  a  union.  In 
the  North  the  farmers  were  opposed  to  a  central  govern¬ 
ment  and  the  merchants  were  its  friends.  In  the  South 
the  reverse  was  true.  There  the  great  planters,  who  were 
the  social  rulers,  favored  the  formation  of  the  union.  The 


1  Bishop,  “History  of  American  Manufactures,”  Vol.  I,  p.  422. 

2  Annals  of  Congress,  Vol.  I,  p.  230.  See  also  “History  of  Suffolk 
County,  Massachusetts,”  Vol.  II,  p.  84;  and  W.  C.  Webster,  “General 
History  of  Commerce,”  p.  341. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  89 

explanation  of  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  planters 
of  the  South  did  their  own  exporting,  but  did  it  through 
English  merchants.  The  latter  were  driving  a  profitable 
trade  through  their  control  of  importations  and  the  chan¬ 
nels  of  export.  The  merchants  were  growing  rich  and 
the  planters  poor.  The  latter  saw  a  possibility  of  relief 
in  an  internal  commerce  and  in  the  development  of  do¬ 
mestic  shipping  with  the  opening  of  the  West  Indian 
trade  through  commercial  treaties.1 

To  collect  debts,  public  and  private,  to  levy  a  tariff 
for  the  benefit  of  “  infant  industries,”  to  protect  the 
fisheries  and  pay  bounties  to  the  fishers,  to  assist  the 
Southern  planter  in  marketing  his  crops,  and  to  secure 
commercial  treaties  and  guard  commercial  interests  in 
all  parts  of  the  world  a  centralized  government  was 
needed.  Those  who  desired  such  a  government  were, 
numerically  speaking,  an  insignificant  minority  of  the 
population,  but,  once  more,  they  were  the  class  whose 
interests  were  bound  up  with  progress  toward  a  higher 
social  stage.  In  advancing  their  interests  this  wealthy 
class  of  planters,  merchants,  and  manufacturers  was 
really  building  for  future  progress. 

The  wageworking,  farming,  and  debtor  class  naturally 
had  no  desire  for  a  strong  central  government.  These 
desired  above  all  relief  from  the  crushing  burden  of  debt. 
They  sought  this  relief  in  new  issues  of  paper  money,  in 
“stay  laws”  postponing  the  collection  of  debts,  and  in 
restrictions  on  the  powers  of  the  courts.  In  regard  to 
government  they  cried  out  for  economy  and  low  taxes. 
The  ever  recurring  populistic  feud  between  frontier 

1  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I, 
pp.  272-273, 


9o 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


debtors  and  coast  creditors  made  its  appearance.  The 
former  were  in  an  overwhelming  majority,  but  they 
lacked  cohesion,  collective  energy,  and  intelligence,  — 
in  short,  class  consciousness. 

It  was  in  Massachusetts  that  the  struggle  became 
especially  violent.  The  populistic  debtors  elected  a 
legislature  pledged  to  carry  out  their  program.  When 
the  legislature  met,  influences  were  brought  to  bear  upon 
it  by  the  creditor  class  of  Boston  that  caused  its  mem¬ 
bers  to  break  their  pledges.  Angered  at  this  anarchistic 
defeat  of  the  popular  will,  the  farmers  began  to  defy  and 
intimidate  the  courts.  As  almost  invariably  happens, 
when  a  working  class  rises,  collectivist  ideas  found  ex¬ 
pression.  General  Knox,  then  Secretary  of  War,  who 
was  sent  by  the  Continental  Congress  to  investigate  the 
situation,  reported  that 

“  Their  creed  is  that  the  property  of  the  United  States 
has  been  protected  from  the  confiscation  of  Britain  by 
the  joint  exertions  of  all,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  the 
common  property  of  all.”  1 

When  the  courts  attempted  to  force  the  collection  of 
debts  from  those  who  had  nothing,  the  desperate  debtors 
rallied  to  arms  under  the  leadership  of  Daniel  Shays, 
a  veteran  of  the  Revolution,  and  captured  some  of 
the  smaller  cities.  Although  there  was  no  money  in  the 
treasury  of  Massachusetts  with  which  to  carry  on  the 
functions  of  government,  yet  the  militia  was  called  out 
to  shoot  down  these  starving  veterans  of  the  Revolution, 
and  the  wealthy  merchants  and  bankers  of  Boston  ad¬ 
vanced  the  money  with  which  to  pay  the  troops.2 

1  Irving,  “Life  of  Washington,”  Vol.  IV,  p.  451. 

2  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I, 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


91 


There  was  a  similar  situation  in  Rhode  Island,  with 
the  difference  that  in  this  state  the  debtors  were  able 
to  seize  the  legislature  and  force  it  to  do  their  will.  The 
result  was  something  very  like  civil  war,  with  the  debtors 
trying  to  force  their  creditors  to  accept  the  paper  money 
that  had  been  issued.  Here,  also,  we  find  the  collectivist 
idea,  coupled  with  a  crude  sort  of  state  socialism  which, 
as  populism,  became  familiar  on  the  western  prairies 
more  than  a  century  later. 

“A  convention  of  all  the  towns  in  Providence  county 
met  at  Smithfield  to  consult  upon  further  measures  of 
hostility  toward  the  merchants,  whom  they  accused  of 
exporting  specie,  and  thus  causing  the  distresses  of  the 
State.  A  plan  of  ‘  State  trade  ’  was  proposed,  to  be  sub¬ 
mitted  to  the  General  Assembly,  and  the  Governor  was 
requested  to  call  a  special  session  for  that  purpose.  The 
plan  was  for  the  State  to  provide  vessels  and  import 
goods  on  its  own  account,  under  direction  of  a  committee 
of  the  legislature;  that  produce,  lumber,  and  labor,  as 
well  as  money,  should  be  received  in  payment  of  taxes, 
and  thus  furnish  cargoes  in  return  for  which  specie  and 
goods  could  be  obtained.  Interest  certificates  were  no 
longer  to  be  received  in  payment  of  duties,  but  the 
private  importers  were  to  be  compelled  to  pay  them  in 
money.  The  act  making  notes  of  hand  negotiable  was 
to  be  repealed,  and  the  statute  of  limitation  shortened  to 
two  years.”  1 

These  uprisings  gave  the  final  jar  that  was  necessary 
to  solidify  the  forces  working  for  a  national  government. 

pp.  318-319;  G.  R.  Minot,  “History  of  the  Insurrection  in  Massachusetts 
in  1786.” 

1  S.  G.  Arnold,  “History  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,”  Vol.  II,  p.  524. 


92 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Until  the  threat  arose  of  the  capture  of  two  or  more  states 
by  the  masses,  there  were  many  even  of  the  wealthy 
classes  who  were  inclined  to  think  that  their  interests 
might  be  best  furthered  by  several  separate  states. 

“But  the  rebellion  of  Shays  broke  out.  In  an  instant 
public  opinion  changed  completely.  Stern  patriots, 
who,  while  all  went  well,  talked  of  the  dangers  of  baneful 
aristocracies,  soon  learned  to  talk  of  the  dangers  of  bane¬ 
ful  democracies.” 1 

There  are  few  things  more  striking  than  this  complete 
change  of  front  by  the  budding  capitalists  of  Revolu¬ 
tionary  times  in  obedience  to  material  class  interests.  In 
1776  they  were  all  for  paper  money,  restriction  of  the 
power  of  the  courts,  “natural  rights,”  and  the  whole 
string  of  democratic  principles.  By  1786  they  had  re¬ 
jected  all  these  principles  and  were  defending  most  of  the 
positions  of  the  English  government  of  King  George, 
while  the  prerevolutionary  principles  were  left  for  debt- 
ridden  farmers  and  workingmen.  It  is  at  least  interest¬ 
ing  to  learn  that  the  ruling  class  had  even  the  same 
demagogues  to  secure  popular  support,  and  that  Sam 
Adams  was  now  an  ardent  defender  of  the  creditor 
class.2 

The  framing  of  the  Constitution  under  these  condi¬ 
tions  took  on  much  of  the  character  of  a  secret  conspira- 
tory  coup  d’etat,  such  as  most  historians  congratulate 
America  on  having  escaped.  The  little  group  of  indi¬ 
viduals  who  best  represented  the  ruling  class,  and  who 
had  dominated  throughout  the  Revolution,  were,  to 

1  McMaster,  “  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I, 
P.  391* 

2  J.  K.  Hosmer,  “Sam  Adams,  The  Man  of  the  Town-Meeting,”  p.  51. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


93 


a  large  extent,  losing  their  control.  They  now  set  about 
recapturing  it  through  a  secret  counter-revolution. 

The  first  step  was  an  invitation  from  Washington  to 
visit  him  at  his  home  at  Mt.  Vernon,  extended  to  com¬ 
missioners  appointed  by  Maryland  and  Virginia  to  con¬ 
sider  methods  of  regulating  commerce  in  Chesapeake 
Bay.  These  men  arranged  for  a  commercial  convention 
at  Annapolis,  September  n,  1786,  and  an  address  was 
issued  which  carefully  wove  in  with  the  local  questions 
general  hints  of  the  need  for  wider  national  arrangements. 
This  whole  matter  is  set  forth  in  a  report  of  the  French 
minister,  Otto,  to  his  chief,  Count  Vergennes,  and  as  he  was 
more  nearly  an  impartial  observer  than  almost  any  one 
else  who  has  reported  these  events,  it  might  be  well  to  let 
him  tell  the  story.  He  says,  writing  October  10, 1786 : — 

“  Although  there  are  no  nobles  in  America,  there  is  a 
class  of  men,  denominated  gentlemen,  who,  by  reason  of 
their  wealth,  their  talents,  their  education,  their  families, 
or  the  offices  they  hold,  aspire  to  a  preeminence  which 
the  people  refuse  to  grant  them ;  and  although  many  of 
these  men  have  betrayed  the  interests  of  their  order  to 
gain  popularity,  there  reigns  among  them  a  connection  so 
much  the  more  intimate  as  they  almost  all  of  them  dread 
the  efforts  of  the  people  to  despoil  them  of  their  posses¬ 
sions,  and,  moreover,  they  are  creditors,  and  therefore 
interested  in  strengthening  the  government  and  watching 
over  the  execution  of  the  laws.  .  .  .  By  proposing  a 
new  organization  of  the  general  government  all  minds 
would  have  been  revolted ;  circumstances  ruinous  to  the 
commerce  of  America  have  happily  arisen  to  furnish  the 
reformers  with  a  pretext  for  introducing  innovations. 


94 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


“The  authors  of  this  proposition  (the  Annapolis  con¬ 
vention)  had  no  hope  nor  even  desire  to  see  the  success  of 
this  assembly  of  commissioners  which  was  only  intended 
to  prepare  a  question  more  important  than  that  of  com¬ 
merce.  The  measures  were  so  well  taken  that  at  the  end 
of  September  no  more  than  five  states  were  represented 
in  Annapolis,  and  the  commissioners  from  the  northern 
states  tarried  several  days  at  New  York  in  order  to  retard 
their  arrival.  The  states  which  assembled  after  having 
waited  nearly  three  weeks  separated  under  the  pretext 
that  they  were  insufficient  in  numbers  to  enter  on  the 
business,  and  to  justify  this  dissolution  they  addressed  to 
the  different  legislatures  and  to  Congress  a  report.”  1 

All  this  scheme  is  exposed  and  its  character  admitted 
by  Madison  in  papers  written  by  him  and  discovered  after 
his  death.  Delegates  to  this  convention  purposely 
remained  away  in  pursuance  of  a  conspiracy  to  prevent 
the  action  for  which  it  was  ostensibly  called.  It  was 
then  possible  to  go  to  the  Continental  Congress  with  the 
plea  that  the  commercial  arrangements  for  which  it  was 
pretended  these  two  gatherings  had  been  called,  were  so 
pressing  that  a  larger  body  must  be  convened.  The 
Continental  Congress  then  passed  a  resolution  in  February, 
1787,  saying  that  it  was  expedient  that  a  convention  of 
delegates  from  the  several  states  be  held  in  Philadelphia 
in  May  “for  the  sole  and  express  purpose  of  revising  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  and  reporting  to  Congress  and 

1  Quoted  in  H.  J.  Ford,  “The  Rise  and  Growth  of  American  Politics,” 
pp.  40-43.  See  also  Morse,  “Life  of  Hamilton,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  212-213; 
H.  Von  Holst,  “Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I, 
pp.  50-51 ;  T.  Watson,  “Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson,”  p.  292; 
Schouler,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  32-33. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


95 


the  several  legislatures  such  alterations  and  provisions 
therein  as  shall,  when  agreed  to  in  Congress  and  con¬ 
firmed  by  the  states,  render  the  Federal  Constitution  ade¬ 
quate  to  the  exigencies  of  government  and  the  preserva¬ 
tion  of  the  union.” 

This  was  the  only  form  of  legality  in  the  calling  of  the 
body  that  formulated  the  fundamental  law  of  the  United 
States;  and  no  sooner  had  that  body  assembled  than  it 
proceeded  to  break  this  one  link  which  was  supposed  to 
give  it  a  legal  sanction.  It  absolutely  disregarded  the 
conditions  of  its  existence  as  fixed  by  Congress,  and  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  formulate  an  entirely  new  government,  and 
never  bothered  to  report  to  the  Congress  to  which  it  was 
supposed  to  be  subordinate. 

After  this  one  short  appearance  in  public,  the  con¬ 
spirators  again  took  to  darkness.  They  observed  the 
most  elaborate  precautions  to  preserve  the  secrecy  of 
their  deliberations.  They  forbade  the  keeping  of  any 
notes,  and  refused  to  give  out  any  information  as  to  their 
actions.  In  spite  of  this  rule  James  Madison  took  copious 
notes,  which  were  published  almost  a  half  century  later. 
These  notes  are  almost  our  only  source  of  information 
concerning  the  proceedings,  as  the  only  other  person  who 
kept  notes  left  the  convention  in  disgust  before  it  had 
completed  its  work.  As  Madison  was  one  of  the  most 
conservative  members  of  the  convention  and  the  one 
most  responsible  for  its  conspiratory  character,  we  may 
be  sure  that  if  any  bias  is  to  be  found  in  his  report,  it  will 
not  be  in  the  direction  of  the  unpopular  side. 

Nevertheless,  these  debates,  as  reported,  afford  ample 
evidence  that  the  constitutional  convention  was  little 
more  than  a  committee  of  the  merchants,  manufacturers, 


g6  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


bankers,  and  planters,  met  to  arrange  a  government  that 
would  promote  their  interests.  Only  twelve  states  were 
represented  at  the  beginning,  and  one  of  these  dropped 
out  before  the  end.  Of  sixty-five  delegates  elected  only 
fifty-five  were  ever  present,  and  but  thirty-nine  signed 
the  final  report.  Throughout  the  discussions  the  utmost 
contempt  for  the  mass  of  the  people  was  displayed. 
Madison  and  Hamilton,  who  had  most  to  do  with  the 
formation  of  the  constitution,  were  in  favor  of  placing 
power  as  far  as  possible  from  the  people  and  giving  prop¬ 
erty  especial  representation.  The  attitude  of  the  con¬ 
vention  is  shown  by  an  expression  used  by  Ellsworth  of 
Connecticut  in  opposing  any  action  restricting  slavery. 
“Let  us  not  intermeddle,”  he  said.  “As  population 
increases  poor  laborers  will  be  so  plenty  as  to  render 
slaves  useless.”  1 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  with  the  return  of  peace 
the  wealthy  classes,  including  those  who  had  remained 
Loyalists  during  the  actual  fight,  returned  to  power.2 
The  merchants  of  Boston,  frightened  at  Shays’  Rebellion,3 
the  manufacturers  of  Pennsylvania,  anxious  for  protec¬ 
tion,4  and  wishing  to  restrict  the  growing  power  of  the 
western  districts,5  the  commercial  classes  of  the  South, 
desiring  a  central  government  for  the  settlement  of  dis¬ 
putes  concerning  navigable  rivers,  —  all  of  these  were 
opposed  to  democracy.  All  were  anxious  to  secure  their 

1  J.  Allen  Smith,  “The  Spirit  of  American  Government,”  pp.  27-39. 

2  “Memorial  History  of  Boston,”  Justin  Winsor  (editor),  Vol.  IV, 
PP-  74-75- 

3  J.  L.  Bishop,  “History  of  American  Manufacturers,”  Vol.  II,  p.  14. 

4  M.  Farrand,  “Compromises  of  the  Constitution,”  American  His¬ 
torical  Review ,  p.  482,  April,  1904. 

6  William  C.  Webster,  “General  History  of  Commerce,”  p.  341. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


97 


privileges  against  attack  by  the  discontented  debtors, 
frontiersmen,  farmers,  and  wageworkers. 

It  was  from  these  classes,  inspired  by  these  motives, 
that  the  delegates  were  drawn  that  framed  the  consti¬ 
tution.  “  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  new  constitution 
was  framed  primarily  in  the  interest  of  the  industrial 
and  commercial  classes,  and  was  finally  ratified  largely  as 
a  result  of  their  active  and  intelligent  work  in  its  behalf.” 

Having  formulated  a  constitution,  the  next  step  was 
to  secure  something  that  would  at  least  have  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  a  popular  acceptance  of  the  document.  Since 
fully  two  thirds  of  the  population  were  opposed  to  any 
such  adoption,  and  remained  so  long  after  it  had  become 
a  law,  it  might  have  appeared  that  the  framers  of  the 
constitution  had  an  impossible  task  upon  their  hands. 
Fortunately  for  them  it  was  not  necessary  to  take  a 
popular  vote.  The  referendum  had  not  yet  been  accepted 
as  a  principle  of  political  action,  and  the  statement  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  that  “all  governments 
derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed  ” 
had  been  relegated  to  the  limbo  of  political  platitudes. 

The  work  of  imposing  the  constitution  upon  the  coun¬ 
try  was  further  lightened  by  the  fact  that  at  least  three 
fourths  of  those  who  would  to-day  constitute  the  elec¬ 
torate  were  then  disfranchised.  Moreover,  the  disfran¬ 
chised  ones  were  just  those  who  were  almost  unanimous 
against  the  constitution.  Property  qualifications  shut 
out  the  working  class  of  the  cities  and  the  debtors  of  the 
back  country.  Out  of  a  population  of  3,000,000  not  more 
than  120,000  were  entitled  to  even  vote  for  those  who 
were  to  constitute  the  state  conventions  that  were  to 
consider  the  constitution. 


98  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


The  delegates  to  these  conventions  were  generally 
elected  on  the  same  basis  as  the  members  of  the  various 
state  legislatures.  This  again  gave  an  increased  advan¬ 
tage  to  the  defenders  of  the  constitution,  as  the  states  had 
been  districted  with  the  definite  object  in  view  of  dis¬ 
criminating  against  the  back-country  districts. 

In  a  monograph  on  “The  Geographical  Distribution  of 
the  Vote  of  the  Thirteen  States  on  the  Federal  Constitu¬ 
tion, ”  by  Orin  G.  Libby,  the  economic  interest  back  of 
the  delegates  to  each  of  the  state  conventions  is  carefully 
investigated.  The  result  shows  a  recognition  of  class 
interests  almost  marvelous  when  we  consider  the  generally 
undeveloped  industrial  condition  of  the  time.  The 
frontiersmen,  the  farmers,  the  debtors,  the  people  who 
lived  in  the  country  and  possessed  little  property,  were 
almost  solidly  against  the  constitution.  The  merchants, 
the  money  lenders,  the  lawyers,  the  great  landowners, 
and  the  planters,  and  those  directly  under  their  influence 
chose  delegates  who  voted  for  the  constitution. 

In  spite  of  gerrymandering  and  disfranchisement,  in 
spite  of  the  marvelous  special  pleading  of  Hamilton  and 
Madison,  whose  political  pamphlets  in  advocacy  of  the 
constitution  were  destined  to  become  the  classic  com¬ 
mentaries  on  that  document ;  in  spite  of  the  tremendous 
influence  of  its  powerful  friends,  it  was  long  before  a 
sufficient  number  of  the  states  would  indorse  it  to  make 
possible  a  further  step.  Many  of  those  who  did  indorse  it 
qualified  that  indorsement  with  a  provision  for  a  “bill 
of  rights,”  and  this  was  provided  for  at  the  first  session 
of  Congress.  Otherwise  there  would  have  been  no 
guarantee  of  freedom  of  speech,  assemblage,  and  press,  or 
of  trial  by  jury,  or  freedom  of  contract,  or  of  any  of  those 


FORMATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 


99 


things  which  constitutions,  even  at  that  time,  were  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  established  mainly  to  secure. 

Rhode  Island  refused  even  this  qualified  indorsement. 
Although  the  Articles  of  Confederation  provided  for 
unanimous  action  before  any  law  should  be  binding,  yet 
steps  were  taken  to  organize  the  new  government  as 
soon  as  ten  states  had  given  their  agreement,  and  finally 
Rhode  Island  was  threatened  with  force  to  compel  its 
consent. 

To  sum  up:  the  organic  law  of  this  nation  was  formu¬ 
lated  in  secret  session  by  a  body  called  into  existence 
through  a  conspiratory  trick,  and  was  forced  upon  a 
disfranchised  people  by  means  of  a  dishonest  apportion¬ 
ment  in  order  that  the  interests  of  a  small  body  of  wealthy 
rulers  might  be  served.  This  should  not  blind  us  to  the 
fact  that  this  small  ruling  class  really  represented  prog¬ 
ress,  that  a  unified  government  was  essential  to  that  in¬ 
dustrial  and  social  growth  which  has  made  this  country 
possible.  It  also  should  not  blind  us  to  the  fact  that  there 
was  nothing  particularly  sacred  about  the  origin  of  this 
government  which  should  render  any  attempt  to  change 
it  sacrilegious. 


CHAPTER  IX 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS  AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE 

AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT 

The  industrial  foundation  for  national  solidarity  was 
slight  when  the  American  government  was  born  in  1789. 
The  ruling  classes  of  the  different  states  had  been  drawn 
together  by  the  common  fear  of  a  proletarian  uprising 
and  the  common  need  for  a  central  government  to  further 
a  few  immediate  interests.  A  decade  might  easily  bring 
such  a  divergence  in  these  interests  that  the  central 
government  would  disintegrate.  The  only  thing  that 
could  prevent  this  would  be  the  growth  of  a  national 
industrial  life. 

The  size  of  any  industrial  unit  and  of  the  political 
establishment  based  upon  it  depend  upon  the  character 
and  extent  of  the  transportation  system.  The  method 
of  transporting  goods  determines  the  extent  of  the  mar¬ 
ket.  It  is  seldom  that  a  political  unit  is  larger  than  the 
circle  of  the  market  for  the  great  staples  of  production. 
There  have  been  exceptions  to  this  rule,  but  they  have 
usually  been  short-lived  or  had  some  peculiar  explanation. 

When  Washington  took  the  presidential  chair,  methods 
of  transportation  in  the  United  States  differed  little  from 
those  which  prevailed  in  Rome  when  she  was  mistress 
of  the  then  known  world.  What  advantage  there  might 
be  in  such  a  comparison  was  with  the  older  civilization. 


100 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS 


IOI 


The  commerce  of  Rome  in  the  days  of  Caesar  moved  over 
roads  whose  very  ruins  are  the  wonder  and  admiration 
of  modern  engineers.  American  commerce  at  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  painfully  dragged  over 
corduroy  roads,  through  unbridged  rivers  and  morasses 
of  mud,  that  made  a  profitable  interchange  of  heavy 
goods  over  long  distances  impossible. 

The  arrangements  for  the  transmission  of  intelligence 
were  little  more  effective  than  those  for  the  carrying  of 
merchandise.  When  independence  was  declared,  there 
were  only  twenty-eight  post  offices  in  all  the  thirteen 
colonies.  Fourteen  years  later,  when  Washington  had 
occupied  the  presidential  chair  for  a  year  and  the  new 
administrative  machinery  was  fairly  well  installed,  there 
were  still  but  seventy-five.  Yet  the  population  was  over 
three  millions.  A  population  of  equal  number  to-day, 
if  as  widely  dispersed,  would  have  several  thousand  post 
offices  to  minister  to  its  wants. 

To  maintain  even  these  miserable  accommodations, 
postal  rates  were  so  high  as  to  be  almost  prohibitive  for 
ordinary  intercourse  among  the  poorer  classes  of  the 
population.  The  minimum  charge  for  a  single  sheet  of 
paper  going  less  than  thirty  miles  was  six  cents.  Then 
the  rates  rapidly  increased  until  to  send  a  single  sheet 
more  than  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles  cost  twenty-five 
cents.  Additional  sheets  increased  the  amount  still 
further.  Newspapers  were  taken  only  at  the  pleasure  of 
the  mail  carriers.  Consequently  correspondence  was 
largely  confined  to  communications  on  public  matters. 

Only  four  cities  had  a  population  of  over  10,000.  Of 
these  New  York  led  with  about  30,000,  having  but  re¬ 
cently  pushed  into  first  place  above  Philadelphia  with 


102 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


28,000.  Boston  claimed  18,000,  Charleston,  South  Caro¬ 
lina,  16,000,  and  Baltimore,  13,000. 

Four  fifths  of  the  population  were  engaged  in  agricul¬ 
ture,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  nearly  correct  to  say 
that  the  group  of  diversified  industries  which  were  then 
included  under  the  name  of  agriculture  embraced  four 
fifths  of  the  industrial  life  of  the  time.  But  these  farmers 
harvested  their  grain  with  sickles  such  as  Ruth  saw  in  the 
fields  of  Boaz.  They  threshed  their  grain  with  a  flail, 
such  as  their  Aryan  ancestors  brought  from  the  plains 
of  central  Asia  when  they  set  forth  on  that  long  racial 
march  toward  the  setting  sun,  of  which  the  colonization 
of  America  was  the  latest,  longest  step.  Although 
Jefferson  was  mathematically  calculating  a  plow  that 
would  do  its  work  with  the  least  expenditure  of  energy, 
two  generations  were  to  come  and  go  before  plows 
constructed  upon  scientific  principles  were  to  appear  on 
American  farms.  In  the  meantime,  the  fields  were  dug 
up  with  sharpened  sticks  pointed  with  iron,  fashioned 
much  after  those  of  which  present-day  travelers  to  Egypt 
and  India  and  central  Russia  send  postal  card  photo¬ 
graphs  to  friends  at  home. 

Cattle,  horses,  hogs,  and  sheep  were  of  a  character  that 
no  modern  farmer  would  permit  to  encumber  his  fields. 
Cattle  were  kept  almost  exclusively  for  their  hides  and 
meat,  and  as  draft  animals.  Here  and  there  in  New 
England  some  butter  and  cheese  were  made.  But  the 
cow  as  a  machine  for  the  transformation  of  a  “balanced 
ration”  into  a  definite  quantity  of  milk  and  cream  at 
the  least  possible  expense  had  scarcely  been  dreamed  of. 
She  must  still  be  capable  of  foraging  her  food  in  the  forest 
through  the  greater  part  of  the  year  and  of  enduring  the 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS 


103 


rigors  of  a  Northern  winter  without  shelter.  “  Hollow 
horn,”  a  disease  caused  by  extreme  cold,  exposure,  and 
insufficient  feed,  killed  many  animals  yearly. 

Although  Messenger,  the  father  of  the  American 
Hamiltonian  strain  of  trotting  horses,  was  imported  in 
1786,  and  Justin  Morgan,  the  sire  of  the  once  famous 
Morgan  horses  (a  strain  that  great  efforts  are  now  being 
made  to  revive),  was  born  in  1793,  the  horses  of  this  time 
were  few  in  number  and  generally  miserable  in  character. 

The  hog  of  that  day  was  compelled  to  live  in  an  en¬ 
vironment,  one  of  whose  conditions  of  survival  was  to 
hunt  his  own  food  in  the  forest  and  dodge  wild  animals 
while  doing  so,  and  then  be  able  to  stand  a  drive  of  sev¬ 
eral  hundred  miles  to  a  distant  market.1  He  bore  little 

1  Parkinson,  who  wrote  of  a  tour  made  about  this  time,  described  the 
hogs  that  he  saw  in  the  following  language  (p.  290)  :  “  The  real  American 
hog  is  what  is  termed  the  wood-hog ;  they  are  long  in  the  leg,  narrow  on 
the  back,  short  in  the  body,  flat  on  their  sides,  with  a  long  snout,  very 
rough  in  their  hair,  in  make  more  like  the  fish  called  a  perch  than  any¬ 
thing  I  can  describe.  You  may  as  well  think  of  stopping  a  crow  as  those 
hogs.  They  will  go  to  a  distance  from  a  fence,  take  a  run,  and  leap 
through  the  rails,  three  or  four  feet  from  the  ground,  turning  themselves 
sidewise.  These  hogs  suffer  such  hardship  as  no  other  animal  could  en¬ 
dure.  It  is  customary  to  keep  them  in  the  woods  all  winter,  as  there  are 
no  threshing-  or  fold-yards ;  and  they  must  live  on  the  roots  of  trees,  or 
something  of  that  sort ;  but  they  are  poor  beyond  any  creature  that  I 
ever  saw.  That  is  probably  the  cause  why  the  American  pork  is  so  fine. 
I  am  not  certain  with  American  keeping  and  treatment  if  they  are  not  the 
best ;  for  I  never  saw  any  animal  live  without  food,  except  this : 
and  I  am  pretty  sure  they  nearly  do  that.  When  they  are  fed,  the 
flesh  may  well  be  sweet ;  it  is  all  young,  though  the  pig  be  ten  years  olde 
and  like  pigs  in  general,  they  only  act  as  a  conveyance  to  carry  corn  to 
market.”  For  further  information  on  agricultural  conditions  at  this  time 
see  H.  E.  Alvord,  “  Dairy  Development  in  the  United  States  ”  in  Report 
of  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  for  1899,  p.  245  et  seq.;  Captain  William¬ 
son,  “Description  of  the  Settlement  of  the  Genesee  Country  in  the  State 
of  New  York”  (1799),  PP-  32-41  >  W.  Faux,  “Memorable  Days  in  Amer- 


104  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


resemblance  to  the  highly  perfected  pork-producing 
machine  of  the  modern  fat  stock  show. 

Considerable  effort  had  been  made  to  improve  the 
breed  of  sheep  because  of  the  pressing  need  of  a  domestic 
supply  of  wool  for  weaving.  Laws  forbidding  the  slaugh¬ 
ter  of  sheep  for  mutton  had  been  passed  in  several  states, 
and  premiums  were  quite  generally  offered  to  encourage 
sheep  breeding.  The  first  Merinos  were  imported  in 
1793,  and  frequent  importations  from  Spain  followed  in 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  Spain  to  prevent  such  action. 

Southern  industry  still  rested  primarily  upon  the 
tobacco  crop,  which  was  less  profitable  than  it  had  once 
been.  Exhaustive  methods  of  exploiting  the  soil  in  its 
production  were  driving  the  plantations  farther  and 
farther  from  the  seaboard  and  the  river  banks.  Cotton 
was  still  ginned  by  hand,  although  Eli  Whitney  was 
working  on  the  model  of  the  first  cotton  gin.  Hand 
ginning  was  so  expensive  that  cotton  raising  was  not 
profitable.  We  are  not,  therefore,  much  surprised  to 
learn  that  there  was  a  strong  abolition  sentiment  in 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  where  the  slaves  on  the  worn- 
out  tobacco  plantations  were  no  longer  earning  their 
“keep,”  and  where  they  could  be  bought  for  from  one 
to  two  hundred  dollars.  The  rice  industry,  too,  was  just 
ready  for  a  transformation.  The  first  machine  for 
winnowing  rice  was  invented  in  1749.  A  machine  for 
hulling  and  another  for  threshing  it  from  the  straw 
were  invented  just  as  the  eighteenth  century  was 
closing. 

ica”  (1823),  pp.  72-73,  113,  139,  143;  Dodge,  “West  Virginia,”  p.  43; 
William  H.  Smith,  “History  of  the  State  of  Indiana,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  661-662 ; 
Henry  Adams,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  16-17. 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS 


io5 

Manufacturing  was  still  almost  entirely  in  the  house¬ 
hold  stage.  Evidences  of  a  coming  change  were,  however, 
apparent  in  many  directions.  The  woolen  industry,  that 
had  led  the  industrial  revolution  just  then  in  progress  in 
England,  was  the  first  to  enter  upon  the  factory  stage  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic.  England  was  well  aware  of  the 
advantage  which  the  newly  invented  machinery  was 
giving  her  manufacturers  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  and 
was  seeking  in  every  way  to  maintain  her  monopoly. 
Heavy  penalties  were  directed  against  those  who  should 
seek  to  export  any  of  the  new  machinery,  and  several 
attempts  to  evade  these  prohibitions  failed.  In  1790 
Samuel  Slater,  who  had  worked  in  the  Arkwright  mills 
in  England,  came  to  the  United  States,  and  as  he  had 
stowed  away  the  plans  only  in  his  head,  he  was  not 
stopped  at  the  customhouse.  He  built  a  complete 
factory  the  next  year  in  Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island. 

At  the  very  beginning  industrial  evolution  in  the 
United  States  showed  one  peculiarity  that  was  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  it  from  that  of  European  countries.  It  was  un¬ 
hampered  by  traditions  and  feudal  institutions  and  cus¬ 
toms,  and  struck  out  boldly  in  new  and  characteristic 
paths.  In  England  the  woolen  industry  had  always  been 
divided  into  several  processes,  each  carried  on  under  a 
different  roof,  and  this  division  was  kept  up  even  after 
the  factory  system  was  introduced.  Carding  and  comb¬ 
ing  was  one  industry,  spinning  another,  and  weaving, 
dyeing,  and  finishing  were  each  separated  from  all  the 
others.  Each  of  these  had  its  own  building,  owner,  in¬ 
dustrial  organization,  purchasing  and  marketing  facilities. 
From  the  very  beginning  all  this  was  swept  aside  in  the 
United  States,  and  all  these  processes  were  made  a  part 


106  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


of  one  act  of  production  under  one  roof  and  one  manage¬ 
ment.1 

Iron  and  steel  were  still  produced  largely  as  they  had 
been  for  centuries.  But  the  new  “ puddling”  method 
had  just  been  introduced;  power  was  being  used  to 
drive  the  blowers,  and  everywhere  there  were  signs  of  a 
coming  change.  One  of  the  great  “household”  indus¬ 
tries  of  New  England  was  the  manufacture  of  nails.  Each 
family  had  its  own  little  anvil,  forge,  and  simple  tools. 
The  iron  was  distributed  at  regular  intervals,  and  the 
completed  product  purchased  by  those  who,  a  little  later, 
were  to  gather  these  workers  together  in  great  factories 
tending  giant  machines,  each  of  which  would  produce 
more  nails  than  a  whole  community  of  household 
workers. 

The  shoe  trade  was  already  concentrating  around 
Boston.  But  shoes  were  still  made  with  lapstone,  awl, 
and  waxed  end. 

Superficially  industry  was  sleeping,  as  it  had  slept  for 
centuries.  A  closer  study  revealed  the  first  movements 
that  heralded  a  new  awakening. 

Fitch’s  steamboat  was  making  regular  trips  up  and 
down  the  Delaware  in  1790.  His  neighbors  looked  upon 
him  as  a  half -insane  crank.  He  was  to  share  the  fate  of 
a  multitude  of  those  who  have  lightened  the  labor  of  the 
world.  He  died  in  poverty,  the  butt  of  ridicule,  while 
another  man  and  generation  reaped  fame  and  wealth 
from  his  ideas. 

The  great  industry  of  the  time  was  shipbuilding  and 
commerce.  New  England  ships  were  turning  watery 

1  “The  New  England  States,”  Vol.  I.  Monograph  by  S.  D.  N.  North, 
“New  England  Woolen  Manufacturers,”  p.  202. 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS 


107 

furrows  in  every  ocean  highway  and  harbor.  Her  mer¬ 
chants  were  already  the  most  powerful  in  the  world,  and 
were  accumulating  the  capital  which,  invested  in  the 
machinery  just  then  being  conceived  by  the  minds  of 
inventors,  was  destined  during  the  next  generation  to 
change  the  whole  social  structure. 

It  was  the  germinal  period  of  capitalism.  The  begin¬ 
nings  of  the  greatest  of  all  social  transformations  were 
appearing,  but  were  attracting  little  attention. 


i 


CHAPTER  X 

RULE  OE  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE 

Three  divisions  of  the  ruling  class  united  to  form  the 
constitution  and  establish  the  new  government.  These 
were  the  merchants,  the  manufacturers,  and  the  planters. 
The  first  two  at  once  formed  an  alliance  against  the  latter 
to  secure  control  of  government.  In  this  alliance  the 
first  dominated,  since  the  carrying  trade  was  by  far  the 
most  highly  developed.  Its  units  of  capital  were  larger, 
its  owners  more  clearly  conscious  of  their  class  interests, 
and  better  equipped  to  further  those  interests  than  the 
owners  of,  the  essentials  of  any  other  industry.  In  this 
America  was  following  in  the  already  well-worn  track 
of  social  evolution.  Merchants  have  generally  been  the 
advance  guard  of  the  capitalist  army,  gathering  the  cap¬ 
ital  and  political  power  to  be  later  employed  and  enjoyed 
by  the  manufacturers. 

Events  were  especially  favorable  for  the  American 
carrying  trade.  The  year  of  Washington’s  inauguration 
saw  the  fall  of  the  Bastile  and  the  beginning  of  the  French 
Revolution.  Everywhere  the  capitalist  class  was  coming 
into  power.  Napoleon  was  to  come  upon  the  heels  of 
the  Revolution,  and  for  a  generation  western  Europe 
was  to  do  little  besides  wallow  in  its  own  blood.  Unless 
this  fact  is  kept  constantly  in  mind  it  is  impossible  to 
understand  events  on  this  side  the  Atlantic.  While  the 
great  commercial  nations  were  fighting  one  another  for 

108 


RULE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE 


109 


the  carrying  trade  of  the  world  America  ran  away  with 
the  bone  over  which  they  were  quarreling. 

The  man  who  best  incarnated  the  interests  and  ideas 
of  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  this  time  was 
Alexander  Hamilton  of  New  York.  So  true  is  this  that 
the  history  of  the  first  twelve  years  after  the  adoption 
of  the  constitution  has  been  very  rightfully  designated 
as  the  “Hamiltonian  period.” 

The  constitution  had  been  formulated  and  foisted  upon 
the  people  largely  by  stealth  and  deception,  aided  by  a 
closely  restricted  suffrage.  Even  this  would  not  have 
been  possible  without  the  support  of  the  plantation  owners 
of  the  South.  The  Southern  planter,  however,  belonged 
to  a  social  stage  that  was  already  of  the  past.  He  was 
to  make  some  desperate  efforts  to  control  the  American 
government,  was  to  succeed  for  a  time,  and  to  go  down 
finally  only  after  the  bloodiest  war  of  the  century.  At 
this  moment  his  economic  power  appeared  to  be  upon  the 
wane.  The  cotton  gin  had  not  yet  produced  its  revolu¬ 
tion,  and  tobacco  cultivation  had  passed  its  zenith.  The 
manufacturing  class,  on  the  contrary,  was  just  beginning 
to  feel  its  strength,  and  it  was  with  this  class,  its  own 
first-born,  that  the  merchant  class  joined  hands.  In  this 
alliance  we  find  the  key  to  the  legislation  of  the  period. 

The  first  bill  introduced  into  the  new  Congress  was  a 
tariff  bill.  Its  protective  features  would  be  considered 
very  mild  to-day,  but  the  debate  shows  that  it  was  con¬ 
sidered  a  protective  measure.  This  discussion  brought 
out  all  the  contending  interests,  as  every  such  bill  since 
has  done.  Pennsylvania  wanted  a  tariff  on  molasses, 
rum,  and  steel.  Massachusetts  opposed  the  first  and 
was  doubtful  of  the  second,  because  of  the  part  they 


no  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

played  in  her  commerce,  but  was  agreed  upon  the  latter. 
The  South  opposed  a  tax  on  the  last  two  and  favored 
taxing  the  first.  The  West,  consisting  of  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee,  both  of  whom  were  clamoring  for  admis¬ 
sion  to  the  Union,  was  cajoled  into  the  protection  camp 
by  a  tariff  on  hemp  to  offset  their  protests  against  the 
tax  on  salt,  levied  at  the  behest  of  the  coast  merchants 
and  fishers,  and  bearing  heavily  on  the  back  country 
cattle  raisers. 

This  tariff  had  hardly  been  enacted  into  law  before 
Hamilton  came  forward  with  the  series  of  proposals  whose 
comprehensiveness  and  unity  of  purpose  and  far-sighted 
outlook  stamp  him  as  one  of  the  greatest  exponents  of 
rising  class  interests,  and  therefore  one  of  the  greatest  of 
what  the  world  calls  statesmen  that  the  century  has 
produced. 

These  measures  were  designed  to  carry  still  farther  the 
plot  which  began  with  the  constitution.  They  proposed 
an  interpretation  of  that  document  to  which  but  a  small 
minority  of  the  small  body  who  formed  it  would  have 
agreed.  It  had  been  difficult  enough  to  secure  its  adop¬ 
tion  when  it  was  supposed  to  leave  a  large  measure  of 
autonomy  to  the  states.  Now  Hamilton  proposed  and 
carried  through  a  program  of  legislation  that  well-nigh 
destroyed  this  autonomy. 

Commerce  demands  a  strong  central  government 
capable  of  extending  its  influence  wherever  ships  sail  and 
goods  are  sold.  To  secure  such  a  government  having 
its  own  sources  of  income,  exercising  direct  control  over 
the  citizen,  and  tied  tightly  to  the  possessors  of  financial 
power,  was  Hamilton’s  object. 

The  three  most  important  measures  which  went  to  the 


RULE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE 


III 


building  up  of  this  structure  were:  first,  the  funding  of 
the  national  and  state  debts  with  the  assumption  of  the 
latter  by  the  national  government;  second,  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  a  national  bank;  third,  the  introduction  of 
a  protective  tariff  and  excise  tax. 

Nothing  is  so  impressive  to  the  bourgeois  mind  as 
property  relations  on  a  large  scale.  A  government  with 
a  great  national  debt,  an  interest  in  a  bank,  and  an  in¬ 
dependent  source  of  revenue  fulfilled  all  ideals  in  this 
respect. 

The  national  debt,  domestic  and  foreign,  which  was 
inherited  by  the  new  government  from  the  old  Confed¬ 
eration  amounted  to  about  $42,000,000.  Hamilton 
proposed  that  this  should  be  increased  by  the  nation 
assuming  the  debts  incurred  by  the  states  during 
the  Revolution  and  still  unpaid,  amounting  to  over 
$30,000,000.  This  would  give  a  national  debt  of  nearly 
$75,000,000.  Although  there  are  many  individuals  at 
the  present  time  who  could  undertake  the  payment  of 
such  a  debt,  it  appeared  of  mammoth  proportions  to  the 
men  of  1790. 

The  certificates  of  indebtedness  had  been  steadily  de¬ 
preciating  during  the  Confederation.  They  were  now 
almost  worthless.  They  were  held  largely  by  specula¬ 
tors  who  had  bought  them  for  but  a  few  cents  on  the 
dollar.  These  speculators  at  once  gave  their  adherence 
to  the  proposal  to  make  the  national  government  re¬ 
sponsible. 

The  Southern  states  were  especially  opposed  to  this 
move  to  strengthen  the  national  government  at  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  states.  The  plantation  interests  were  much 
more  closely  united  to  the  states  and  had  little  need  of 


1 1 2 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


a  strong  central  government.  Moreover,  several  of  the 
Southern  states  had  already  paid  their  debts,  and  this 
new  proposal  would  simply  mean  that  they  would  be 
required  to  assist  in  bearing  the  burdens  of  other  states.1 

The  South  was  very  anxious  that  the  national  capital 
should  be  located  in  their  section.  For  this  Hamilton 
and  those  he  represented  cared  little  or  nothing.  They 
were  interested  in  more  substantial  things.  So  Hamilton 
arranged  a  bargain  with  Jefferson.  By  its  terms  enough 
votes  were  to  be  given  by  Hamilton  to  secure  the  location 
of  the  capital  on  the  Potomac  on  condition  that  Jefferson 
delivered  sufficient  Southern  votes  to  carry  the  measure, 
providing  for  the  assumption  of  state  debts.  After  it 
was  all  over,  Jefferson  made  a  loud  complaint  about 
getting  the  worst  of  the  bargain,  seeming  to  forget  that 
bargains  are  made  with  just  that  object  in  view. 

Hamilton’s  supporters  insisted  that  the  certificates  of 
indebtedness  should  be  paid  in  full,  and  this  without 
regard  to  the  amounts  paid  for  such  certificates  by  the 
present  holders.  From  the  point  of  view  of  expediency 
(which  is  much  the  same  as  statesmanship)  this  was  un¬ 
doubtedly  correct.  But  when  this  action  was  defended 
on  ethical  grounds,  with  high-sounding  protestations  of 

1  J.  S.  Bassett,  “The  Federalist  System,”  p.  34 :  “The  states  which  had 
the  largest  unpaid  debts  were  naturally  the  most  anxious  for  funding.  Of 
these  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  South  Carolina  were  most  notable. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  states  having  the  small  debts  were  against  the 
measure,  and  among  them  was  Virginia,  who  had  paid  much  of  her 
Revolutionary  debt  through  the  sale  of  western  lands.  .  .  .  Those 
persons,  and  there  were  many,  who  favored  a  strong  central  government 
also  declared  for  assumption.  In  the  wake  of  Virginia  followed  the  states 
south  of  her,  save  South  Carolina,  while  New  England  was  for  assump¬ 
tion.  The  middle  states  divided,  the  commercial  parts  going  for,  and  the 
agricultural  parts  against,  the  measure.” 


RULE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE 


IX3 

honesty,  one  is  apt  to  be  reminded  of  another  debt  that 
was  being  repudiated  at  the  very  moment  such  strenuous 
efforts  were  being  made  to  pay  this  one.  This  was  the 
debt  created  by  forcing  the  Continental  paper  money 
upon  farmery  in  payment  (?)  for  their  produce,  upon 
laborers  as  wages  for  their  toil,  upon  soldiers  in  exchange 
for  their  lives  and  their  sufferings.  These  bills  had  been 
forced  upon  such  persons  by  all  the  power  of  civil,  crim¬ 
inal,  and  military  law,  backed  up  by  every  form  of  social 
ostracism,  mob  violence,  and  public  pressure  that  could 
be  devised. 

Those  to  whom  it  was  owed  had  given,  not  of  their 
abundance  like  the  holders  of  the  certificates  of  indebted¬ 
ness,  but  of  their  poverty.  This  debt  amounted  to  over 
$100,000,000.  It  was  absolutely  repudiated  by  the  gov¬ 
ernment  of  Hamilton.  That  repudiation,  and  consequent 
loss  by  the  producing  class,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
terrible  poverty  that  prevailed.  It  is  at  least  possible 
that  some  of  the  “prosperity”  that  followed  the  enact¬ 
ment  of  Hamilton’s  measures  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
workers  were  permitted  to  produce  for  use  and  exchange 
instead  of  for  confiscation  through  a  useless  currency.1 

1  Jefferson  has  thus  described  the  process  of  funding  and  assumption : 
“  After  the  expedient  of  paper  money  had  exhausted  itself,  certificates 
of  debt  were  given  to  the  individual  creditors,  with  assurance  of  payment 
as  soon  as  the  United  States  should  be  able.  But  the  distresses  of  these 
people  often  obliged  them  to  part  with  these  for  the  half,  the  fifth,  and 
even  a  tenth  of  their  value ;  and  speculators  had  made  a  trade  of  cozen¬ 
ing  them  from  their  holders,  by  the  most  fraudulent  practices,  and  per¬ 
suasion  that  they  would  never  be  paid.  In  the  bill  for  funding  and  pay¬ 
ing  these  Hamilton  made  no  difference  between  the  original  holders  and 
the  fraudulent  purchasers  of  this  paper.  Great  and  just  repugnance  arose 
at  putting  these  two  classes  of  creditors  on  the  same  footing,  and  great 
exertions  were  used  to  pay  the  former  the  full  value,  and  to  the  latter 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


114 

The  class  of  bankers  was  just  appearing  There  were 
only  four  banks  in  the  entire  country.  To  supply  needed 
banking  facilities  and  tie  this  powerful  interest  to  the 
national  government,  Hamilton  proposed  a  national 
bank.  He  united  this  proposal  to  his  debt  plan  in  a  most 
skillful  manner.  The  bank  was  to  have  a  capital  of 
$10,000,000.  The  national  government  took  $2,000,000 
of  this,  receiving  in  return  a  loan  of  the  same  amount. 

The  clever  feature  of  the  organization  was  that  the 
certificates  of  debt  were  to  be  accepted  for  75  per  cent  of 
the  value  of  any  number  of  shares  of  stock.  As  the  bank 
was  assured  of  a  monopoly  for  ten  years,  its  stock,  and 
therefore  the  certificates  of  debt,  were  above  par  almost 
from  the  beginning.  Yet  it  was  noticed  that  although 
the  shares  were  largely  oversubscribed,  nearly  all  the  pur¬ 
chasers  lived  north  of  the  Potomac. 

The  vote  in  Congress  for  its  establishment  was  a  direct 
reflection  of  the  possession  of  the  shares.  The  measure 

the  price  only  which  he  had  paid  with  interest.  But  this  would  have 
prevented  the  game  which  was  to  be  played,  and  for  which  the  minds  of 
greedy  members  were  already  tutored  and  prepared.  When  the  trial 
of  strength  on  these  several  efforts  had  indicated  the  form  in  which  the 
bill  would  finally  pass,  this  being  known  within  doors  sooner  than  without 
and  especially  than  to  those  who  were  in  distant  parts  of  the  Union,  the 
base  scramble  began.  Couriers  and  relay  horses  by  land,  and  swift 
sailing  pilot  boats  by  sea,  were  flying  in  all  directions,  .  .  .  and  this 
paper  was  bought  up  at  5/  and  even  as  low  as  2/  in  the  pound,  before 
the  holder  knew  that  Congress  had  already  provided  for  its  redemption 
at  par.  Immense  sums  were  thus  filched  from  the  poor  and  ignorant,  and 
fortunes  accumulated  by  those  who  had  been  poor  enough  before.  Men 
thus  enriched  by  the  dexterity  of  a  leader  would  follow  of  course  the 
chief  who  was  leading  them  to  fortune,  and  become  the  zealous  instru¬ 
ments  of  all  his  enterprises.”  This  passage  has  been  criticized  by  the 
defenders  of  Hamilton  who  have  claimed  that  it  accused  Hamilton  of 
dishonesty.  That  it  does  not  do  this  is  plain  to  any  unbiased  reader, 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  it  describes  actual  facts. 


RULE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  115 

was  carried  by  the  solid  vote  of  the  Northern  commercial 
and  manufacturing  states  against  the  solid  opposition  of 
the  plantation  states  of  the  South. 

The  assumption  and  funding  of  the  debt  by  the  national 
government  created  a  bondholding,  interest-receiving 
class  who  naturally  worshiped  their  creator.  It  also 
made  necessary  a  steady  national  income.  If  the  national 
government  was  to  pay  money  regularly  and  directly  to 
one  class  of  citizens,  it  must  be  able  to  take  it  directly 
and  regularly  from  another  class. 

The  next  step  in  Hamilton’s  program  included  a  pro¬ 
tective  tariff  and  an  excise  tax.  His  famous  “  Report 
on  Manufactures,”  submitted  in  advocacy  of  a  protective 
tariff,  is  admittedly  the  ablest  document  produced  by 
more  than  a  century  of  tariff  discussion.  There  is  one 
essential  point  in  which  his  argument  differs  from  that 
offered  by  high  tariff  advocates  of  the  present  time. 
Hamilton  was  not  troubled  with  universal  suffrage.  It 
was  not  necessary  for  him  to  placate  the  “labor  vote.” 
He  spoke  only  from  the  manufacturers’  point  of  view. 
Therefore  he  gave  as  one  of  the  reasons  for  a  tariff  the 
high  wages  paid  in  this  country,  and  proceeded  upon  the 
basis  that  such  wages  were  an  undesirable  handicap  which 
would  be  overcome  as  the  country  grew  older. 

On  the  question  of  child  labor  also  he  would  scarcely 
use  the  language  about  to  be  quoted  if  he  were  spokesman 
for  the  present  high  tariff.  He  says :  — 

“It  is  worthy  of  particular  remark  that,  in  general, 
women  and  children  are  rendered  more  useful,  and  the 
latter  more  early  useful,  by  manufacturing  establish¬ 
ments,  than  they  would  otherwise  be.  Of  the  num¬ 
ber  of  persons  employed  in  the  cotton  manufactories  of 


1 1 6  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Great  Britain  it  is  computed  that  four  sevenths  are  women 
and  children,  of  whom  the  greater  proportion  are  children 
and  many  of  a  tender  age.” 

The  protective  tariff,  again,  like  the  bank  and  the 
national  debt,  created  a  class  (the  manufacturers)  pecul¬ 
iarly  dependent  upon  the  national  government,  and  who 
could  be  reckoned  upon  to  rally  to  its  support  and  to 
demand  further  favors  in  return  for  that  support. 

The  rapid  growth  of  manufactures  was  hindered  by 
the  unwillingness  of  men  to  work  for  wages  when  a  whole 
great  continent  of  untrodden  fertile  land  lay  at  the  west¬ 
ern  doors  of  society  ready  to  yield  up  its  bounty  to  whom¬ 
ever  could  get  upon  it  and  use  his  labor.  Benjamin 
Franklin  had  seen  this  fact  and  had  expressed  an  opinion 
that  while  free  land  existed,  manufacturing  would  be  im¬ 
possible  because  no  one  would  work  for  wages. 

This  land  was  now  in  the  hands  of  the  national  govern¬ 
ment,  and  we  find  this  taking  steps  to  limit  settlement 
and  thereby  create  a  body  of  wageworkers.  Acting  upon 
the  advice  of  Hamilton,  it  was  provided  that  no  land 
should  be  sold  from  the  public  domain  except  in  plots  of 
not  less  than  nine  square  miles.  To  still  further  debar 
the  small  farmer  the  price  of  even  these  great  tracts  was 
fixed  at  a  minimum  of  two  dollars  an  acre.  But  lest  the 
work  of  the  land  speculators  should  be  interfered  with, 
long  credit  was  extended  to  those  who  could  give  satis¬ 
factory  security.1 

1  Ugo  Rabbeno,  “  American  Commercial  Policy,”  p.  176  et  seq .,  explains 
the  working  of  this  policy  in  detail  and  adds :  “  Thus  at  an  epoch  when 
it  was  not  yet  possible  to  initiate  a  protective  policy,  which  would  only 
have  made  for  the  interest  of  too  small  a  class  of  capitalists,  a  land  pol¬ 
icy  was  nevertheless  introduced,  which  favored  all  the  interests  of  the 
capitalists,  whether  manufacturers  —  by  excluding  laborers  from  the 


RULE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  117 

The  moderately  protective  tariff  and  the  land  policy 
combined  with  a  most  intense  public  sentiment  in  favor 
of  domestic  products,  amounting  to  a  boycott  on  foreign 
products  where  the  domestic  was  attainable,  led  to  a 
rapid  development  of  manufactures. 

The  excise  tax  filled  another  role  in  the  working  out  of 
Hamilton’s  plan.  It  had  been  supposed  that  the  national 
government  would  have  no  direct  connection  with  in¬ 
dividuals,  but  would  reach  them  only  through  the  state 
governments.  It  was  with  this  understanding  that  the 
constitution  had  been  finally  adopted.  This  did  not  suit 
Hamilton’s  plans,  nor  the  interests  of  those  he  represented. 
He  wished  to  bring  the  central  government  into  direct 
contact  with  the  citizens  in  their  homes.  This  was  the 
principal  purpose  of  the  tax  upon  the  production  of 
whisky. 

Such  a  tax  was  peculiarly  fitted  to  accomplish  the  pur¬ 
pose  in  view.  It  was  certain  to  bring  about  a  conflict 
with  a  class  already  hostile  to  the  central  government,  and 
this  a  class  without  influence  in  determining  legislation. 
Corn  was  the  principal  crop  on  the  frontier.  The  range 
within  which  it  can  be  marketed  in  its  original  form  and 
with  crude  methods  of  transportation  is  extremely  limited. 
It  can,  however,  be  changed  into  two  forms  that  admit 
of  extensive  and  economical  transportation,  —  pork  and 
whisky.  The  second  of  these  affords  by  far  the  greater 
profits.  It  is  therefore  an  invariable  rule  of  historical 
interpretation  that  a  settlement  within  the  corn  belt 
with  imperfect  transportation  facilities  will  always  have 

soil  and  compelling  them  to  work  for  wages  —  or  agriculturists,  by  leav¬ 
ing  the  field  open  to  speculative  undertakings  on  a  large  scale  exclu¬ 
sively.  See  also  Schouler,  “History  of  United  States,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  215-216. 


Il8  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


“ moonshine  stills.”  This  rule  has  held  good  for  more 
than  a  century,  and  clear  across  the  continent,  without 
regard  to  the  morality  or  general  law-abiding  character 
of  the  population. 

The  frontiersmen  of  Pennsylvania  could  see  no  reason 
why  they  should  not  be  permitted  to  market  their  corn 
as  a  beverage  unhindered  by  a  revenue  tax.  Perhaps 
some  of  them  had  heard  of  the  patriotic  smugglers  of 
pre-Revolutionary  days,  or  thought  that  “taxation 
without  representation”  was  still  a  crime,  and,  since  they 
were  nearly  all  disfranchised  by  property  qualifications, 
they  attempted  to  resist  the  law. 

This  gave  Hamilton  the  opportunity  for  which  he  had 
been  waiting.  Although  the  “Whisky  Rebellion,”  as 
the  few  isolated  attacks  upon  the  revenue  officers  were 
called,  was  of  insignificant  proportions,  Hamilton  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  inducing  Washington  to  call  upon  the  troops 
from  the  neighboring  states,  until  an  army  of  15,000  was 
assembled  and  marched  through  the  riotous  localities. 
This  overwhelming  show  of  force  established  a  precedent 
for  direct  interference  by  the  national  government  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  a  state,  and  gave  evidence  of  the 
possession  of  sufficient  power  to  enforce  the  decrees  of 
the  central  government.1 

This  completed  the  revolution  begun  when  that  con¬ 
ference  was  called  at  Annapolis.  The  whole  character 
of  governmental  institutions  had  been  transformed.  The 

1  Dewey,  “Financial  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  106:  “The 
tax  was  regarded  with  hostility,  particularly  in  the  agricultural  regions 
of  the  Middle  and  Southern  States.  It  was  asserted  that  the  commercial 
and  importing  interests  of  New  England  disliked  the  tariff,  but  looked 
with  great  complacency  upon  an  excise  upon  an  industry  in  which  they 
were  not  greatly  concerned.” 


RULE  OF  COMMERCE  AND  FINANCE  119 

principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  long 
ago  been  cast  aside.  The  spirit  of  democracy  which  was 
roused  to  win  that  struggle  had  been  crushed,  and  social 
control  had  been  vested  in  the  class  whose  lineal  descend¬ 
ants  have  held  it  until  the  present  time.  That  such 
action  was  essential  if  a  great  and  powerful  nation  was 
to  arise  upon  this  continent,  few  will  deny. 

Without  a  strong,  central  government,  controlled  by 
the  commercial  and  manufacturing  class  at  this  time,  it 
would  have  been  impossible  to  have  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  great  development  of  subsequent  years. 


CHAPTER  XI 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 

Commerce  had  progressed  with  seven-league  strides 
under  Hamilton’s  regime.  Aided  by  the  upheaval  in 
Europe,  American  foreign  trade  grew  from  $43,000,000  in 
1791  to  $204,000,000  in  1801. 1  Nevertheless,  the  mer¬ 
chants  were  driven  from  power.  There  were  many 
reasons  for  this,  not  all  of  them  directly  due  to  the  clash 
of  immediate  industrial  interests. 

The  Federalists  seem  to  have  become  drunk  with 
power.  They  took  the  unpopular  side  in  the  French 
Revolution,  and  sought  to  suppress  all  expressions  of 
sympathy  with  the  Revolutionists.  The  better  to  do 
this  they  passed  the  “  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,”  vesting 
extraordinary  powers  in  the  President  for  the  punish¬ 
ment  of  those  who  criticized  the  government,  and  giving 
him  the  power  summarily  to  deport  foreigners.  There 
was  much  opposition  to  this  growing  centralization  of 
autocratic  power.  This  brought  support  to  other  divi¬ 
sions  of  the  budding  capitalist  class  rather  than  to  the 
merchants. 

The  principal  industrial  divisions  of  the  population 
struggling  for  the  control  of  government  were  the  small 
farmers,  the  frontiersmen,  the  manufacturers,  the  mer¬ 
chants,  and  the  Southern  plantation  owners.  It  will  be 
at  once  noted  that  these  overlap  in  the  actual  processes 

1  William  C.  Webster,  “General  History  of  Commerce,”  p.  352. 


120 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


1 21 


of  industry.  This  was  still  more  true  of  their  political 
interests.  Consequently  any  exact  analysis  of  the  play 
of  industrial  forces  as  reflected  in  political  events  is  al¬ 
most  impossible. 

Agriculture  in  the  sense  of  small,  diversified  farming 
was  still  by  far  the  most  common  industry.  It  was  much 
more  “diversified”  than  is  advised  to-day  by  even  the 
most  enthusiastic  opponents  of  “one-crop”  farming. 
The  compilers  of  the  census  of  1810  tell  us  that  they  have 
excluded  many  “doubtful  articles”  from  the  manufac¬ 
turing  schedules,  which 

“ . . .  from  their  very  nature  were  nearly  allied  to  agricul¬ 
ture,  including  cotton  pressing,  flour  and  meal,  grain  and 
sawmills,  barrels  for  packing,  malt,  pot  and  pearl  ashes, 
maple  and  cane  sugar,  molasses,  rosin,  pitch,  slates, 
bricks,  tiles,  saltpeter,  indigo,  red  and  yellow  ochre, 
hemp  and  hemp  mills,  fisheries,  wine,  ground  plaster, 
etc.,  all  together  estimated  at  $25,850,795,  making  the 
aggregate  value  of  manufactures  of  every  description  in 
the  United  States  in  1810  equal  to  $198,613,484.” 

Here  we  are  at  the  very  birth  of  the  family  of  modern 
industries  from  the  great  mother  industry  of  agriculture. 
The  whole  process  of  industrial  evolution  consists  of  a 
gradual  separation  of  the  production  of  more  and  more 
“doubtful  articles”  from  farming. 

Many  children  of  agriculture  were  just  preparing  to 
leave  the  farm  at  this  time  and  to  take  up  their  abode  in 
factories.  The  making  of  cloth  was  just  passing  from 
the  “household”  stage,  where  production  is  in  the  family 
and  for  the  family,  to  the  “domestic”  stage,  where,  while 
production  still  goes  on  in  the  home,  the  product  seeks 
an  outside  market. 


122 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


This  domestic  stage,  of  so  much  importance  in  Euro¬ 
pean  industrial  history,  was  to  be  but  a  short  tarrying 
place  for  American  industry  on  its  road  to  the  factory. 
The  two  stages  were  overlapping  at  this  time.  The  great 
bulk  of  manufacturing  was  still  in  the  household  stage. 
An  important  portion  had  reached  the  point  of  domestic 
production  for  market.  Then  we  learn  that  “  fifteen 
cotton  mills  were  erected  in  New  England  before  the  year 
1808,  working  at  that  time  almost  8000  spindles,  and  pro¬ 
ducing  about  300,000  pounds  of  yarn  a  year.  Returns 
had  been  received  of  87  mills  erected  at  the  end  of  the 
year  1809,  62  of  which  were  in  operation,  and  worked 
31,000  spindles.”  1 

By  1812  a  woolen  mill  in  Middletown,  Connecticut,  was 
being  run  by  one  of  Oliver  Evans’  engines,  invented, 
designed,  constructed,  and  operated  in  the  United  States.2 
The  relative  importance  of  the  different  stages  of  indus¬ 
trial  production  of  cloth  is  shown  by  the  report  of  the 
census  of  1810  that  21,211,262  yards  of  linen,  16,581,299 
of  cotton,  and  9,528,266  of  woolen  goods  were  made  in 
families,  out  of  a  total  production  of  about  75,000,000 
yards.  Note  that  at  this  period  linen  leads,  with  cotton 
and  woolen  following.  Soon  cotton  will  press  to  the 
front  and  linen  be  found  dragging  far  in  the  rear. 

The  manufacturing  interests  were  still  individualistic, 
or  merged  with  agriculture.  The  tariff  had  aided  them, 
but  they  were  not  sufficiently  numerous,  coherent,  nor 
energetic  to  become  a  political  factor.3 

1Leander  Bishop,  “History  of  American  Manufactures,”  Vol.  II, 
p.  160. 

2  Niles ’  Register ,  Feb.  1,  1812,  p.  406. 

3  Edwin  Stanwood,  “American  Tariff  Controversies  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,”  p.  123:  “One  cannot  be  surprised  that  while  the  foreign 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


123 


In  the  closing  year  of  Washington’s  administration 
an  epoch-making  invention  had  appeared  that  wrought 
a  revolution  throughout  a  broad  section  of  the  country. 
This  was  the  cotton  gin  of  Eli  Whitney.  This  inven¬ 
tion  was  the  last  link  that  made  possible  the  factory 
system  in  the  cloth  industry.  It  furnished  the  cheap 
cotton  that  laid  the  foundation  of  the  factory  system  of 
England  and  the  world.  It  increased  the  production 
of  cotton  in  the  United  States  one  hundred  fold  in  the 
seven  years  following  its  appearance. 

By  making  profitable  the  cultivation  of  the  short- 
fibered  upland  cotton  plant  it  released  chattel  slavery  and 
the  plantation  system  from  the  confines  of  the  tide-water 
region,  and  sent  them  on  their  career  of  conquest  along 
the  foothills  of  the  Alleghenies  to  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
and  Texas.  It  wiped  out,  almost  in  a  day,  the  glimmering 
sentiment  for  abolition  which  a  constantly  falling  price 
of  slaves  had  aroused  in  the  breasts  of  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  other  Virginia  tobacco  growers. 
It  created  a  new  industrial,  and  therefore  a  new  political, 
power,  —  the  slave-owning  cotton  planter,  who  was  soon 
to  grasp  at  national  domination,  to  secure  it  after  a  short 
division  of  power  with  allied  forces,  and  then  to  rule  su- 

trade  was  growing  rapidly  and  while  agriculture  was  flourishing  under 
the  double  stimulus  of  a  rapidly  increasing  and  of  a  profitable  foreign 
vent  .  .  .  little  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  introduction  of  manu¬ 
factures.  There  was  ample  employment  for  all  disposable  capital  in 
the  traffic  which  gave  such  large  returns;  there  was  no  surplus  labor 
to  be  drawn  into  new  industrial  enterprises.  Occupation  could  be  found 
for  every  man  with  a  mechanical  turn  in  building  ships,  in  building  and 
furnishing  the  new  dwellings  and  shops  required  by  population  and  trade, 
in  blacksmithing,  shoemaking  and  other  trades  connected  with  the 
shelter,  food  and  clothing  of  the  people.”  See  also  succeeding  pages 
to  p.  127. 


124 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


preme  for  more  than  a  generation  and  to  be  overthrown 
only  when  the  wage-buying  capitalist  should  wrest  the 
scepter  of  power  by  four  years  of  terrible  civil  war. 

This  new  and  vigorous  industrial  interest,  pulsing  with 
power,  present  and  potential,  contributed  strongly  to 
the  overthrow  of  Hamiltonian  Federalism  and  the  in- 
stallation  of  Jeffersonian  individualism,  although,  as  we 
shall  see,  the  contrast  was  not  so  sharp  as  is  sometimes 
thought. 

It  was  not  the  old  planters  of  the  seaboard  that  placed 
Jefferson  in  the  presidential  chair.  On  the  contrary, 
these  were  more  generally  Federalist  in  their  sympathies. 
They  were  united  by  many  ties  of  the  past,  if  not  of  the 
present,  with  the  New  England  merchants.1 

But  the  new  upland  cotton  raisers  were  making  com¬ 
mon  cause  with  the  back  country  farmers  amid  whom 
they  were  living.  With  these  were  allied  the  great  body 
of  frontiersmen  who  had  been  pouring  through  Cumber¬ 
land  Gap,  down  the  Ohio,  and  out  along  the  Genesee 
River  in  New  York.  These  men  were  always  separatist, 
individualistic,  and  Jefferson’s  philosophy  appealed  to 
them.  Besides  they  had  learned  of  the  opposition  of 
isolated  New  England  to  Western  expansion  and  the 
Western  country,  and  this  antagonism  had  not  lost  any¬ 
thing  in  the  telling  as  it  traveled  to  the  West,  and  it  was 
most  cordially  returned  with  ample  interest. 

Jay’s  treaty  with  England  in  1794  had  not  provided 
for  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  and  had  almost 
raised  a  rebellion  in  the  West  as  a  consequence.  The 
Southern  cotton  planters  were  also  apt  to  remember  that 
John  Jay  had  known  so  little  of  that  industry  that  he  had 

1  Basset,  “The  Federalist  System,”  pp.  45,  46. 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


125 


permitted  the  inclusion  of  an  article  forbidding  the  ex¬ 
port  of  cotton  in  American  ships,  because  he  did  not  know 
that  cotton  was  an  American  crop. 

These  new  forces,  the  back  country  farmers,  the  fron¬ 
tiersmen,  and  the  new  race  of  upland  cotton  planters, 
together  with  the  household  manufacturers,  made  up  the 
elements  that  overthrew  the  Federal  forces. 

Owing  to  the  confusion  of  interests,  the  presidential 
election  was  extremely  close,  so  close  that  no  one  re¬ 
ceived  a  majority  of  the  electoral  votes.  The  election, 
therefore,  went  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  where 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  chosen  as  President,  with  Aaron 
Burr  as  Vice  President.  This  result  was  not  accom¬ 
plished  without  some  political  intrigue  on  the  part  of 
Hamilton  and  Aaron  Burr,  in  which  a  new  force  was  in¬ 
troduced  into  American  politics  by  the  latter.  This 
was  the  famous  Tammany  Society  of  New  York  which 
had  been  founded  as  a  social  and  philanthropic  society 
in  1789.1 

Before  the  Federalists  lost  control,  they  took  one  more 
long  step  in  the  perfection  of  the  program  of  centraliza¬ 
tion  and  removal  of  the  government  from  democratic 
control.  They  had  formulated  the  constitution  in  secret, 
secured  its  adoption  by  deceit  and  gerrymandering, 
extended  its  provisions  by  shrewd  legislation,  and  made 
it  clearly  an  instrument  of  class  government.  The  next 
step  was  to  remove  the  final  power  of  control  from  the 
people  and  vest  it  in  the  courts.  The  first  move  toward 
the  accomplishment  of  this  was  a  series  of  laws  passed 
during  the  very  last  days  of  Federal  rule,  increasing  the 

1  M.  Ostrogorski,  “Democracy  and  the  Organization  of  Political 
Parties,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  1 50-1 53. 


126 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


number  of  courts  far  beyond  the  needs  of  the  country  at 
the  time.  Every  place  thus  created  was  at  once  filled 
with  a  stanch  Federalist.  Tradition  says  that  the  work 
of  signing  the  commissions  of  these  judges  was  stopped 
only  when  a  messenger  from  Jefferson  stayed  the  hand 
of  the  secretary  at  midnight,  March  3d. 

Having  thus  erected  a  supreme  power  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  people,  they  placed  at  the  head  of  the  judiciary 
a  man  who  was  to  carry  this  usurpation  of  power  to  the 
uttermost  limits  and  to  fix  it  there  for  a  century  to  come. 
This  man  was  John  Marshall,  who  occupied  the  position 
of  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  for  thirty-four  years, 
receiving  his  appointment  in  1801.  During  this  time  he 
constantly  extended  and  strengthened  the  power  of  his 
office  until  it  reached  proportions  undreamed  of  even 
by  those  who  founded  this  government,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Hamilton.1 

Lest  it  may  be  thought  that  I  exaggerate  the  extent  of 
the  revolutionary  usurpation  of  power  by  Marshall  and 
its  influence  on  subsequent  history,  I  will  quote  from 
an  authoritative  legal  work  at  this  point.  Joseph  P. 
Cotton,  in  his  “Constitutional  Decisions  of  John  Mar¬ 
shall/ ?  says :  —  < 

“In  1801  one  of  these  ‘ midnight  judges/  Marbury, 
applied  for  a  mandamus  to  require  the  issue  of  his  com¬ 
mission,  and  in  1803  Marshall  delivered  his  opinion  on 
that  application.  This  opinion  is  the  beginning  of 
American  constitutional  law.  In  it  Marshall  announced 

1  The  Federalist ,  No.  LXXX,  “Extent  of  the  Authority  of  the  Judi¬ 
ciary,”  by  Hamilton,  contains  a  passage  that  may  possibly  be  under¬ 
stood  to  imply  the  existence  of  such  power,  but  this  is  doubtful,  and  it 
is  certain  that  no  one  claimed  it  openly  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of 
the  constitution. 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


127 


the  right  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  review  the  constitu¬ 
tionality  of  the  acts  of  the  national  legislature  and  the 
executive,  the  coordinate  branches  of  the  government. 
Such  a  power  had  been  spoken  of  in  certain  opinions,  and, 
indeed,  acted  upon  in  unimportant  cases  in  the  state 
courts,  but  never  in  the  Federal  courts.  Common  as 
this  conception  of  our  courts  now  is,  it  is  hard  to  com¬ 
prehend  the  amazing  quality  of  it  then.  No  court  in 
England  had  such  power ;  there  was  no  express  warrant 
for  it  in  the  words  of  the  Constitution ;  the  existence  of 
it  was  denied  by  every  other  branch  of  the  government 
and  by  the  dominant  majority  of  the  country.  More¬ 
over,  no  such  power  had  been  clearly  anticipated  by  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution,  nor  was  it  a  necessary  im¬ 
plication  from  the  scheme  of  government  they  had  es¬ 
tablished.  If  that  doctrine  were  to  be  law,  the  Supreme 
Court  was  indeed  a  final  power  in  a  democracy,  beyond 
the  reach  of  public  opinion.” 

This  completed  the  process  of  usurpation  of  power  and 
destruction  of  democratic  control  which  was  begun  with 
the  first  arrangements  for  a  constitutional  convention. 
With  this  power  to  declare  laws  unconstitutional  in  its 
possession  the  Supreme  Court  possessed  an  absolute  veto 
on  all  legislation  and  was  itself  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
voters. 

Jefferson,  the  representative  of  Southern  plantation  and 
frontier  farmer  interests,  has  always  been  hailed  as  the 
prophet  of  democracy.  But  his  democracy,  in  accordance 
with  the  interests  he  represented,  was  that  of  individual¬ 
ism,  of  philosophic  anarchy,  rather  than  of  associated 
effort  under  common  management.  The  cotton  plan¬ 
tation  owner,  whose  working  class  of  chattel  slaves  was 


128  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


forever  debarred  from  political  activity,  could  easily 
champion  this  democracy.  He  would  enfranchise  the 
Northern  wageworkers  whom  he  hoped,  and  rightly,  as 
subsequent  events  showed,  might  become  his  allies 
against  the  Northern  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
The  pioneer  was  always  democratic  in  this  individualistic 
sense.  Class  distinctions  had  not  yet  arisen  on  the  fron¬ 
tier.  Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  which  were  ad¬ 
mitted  to  the  Union  during  this  period,  were  the  first 
states  to  embody  universal  suffrage  in  their  constitutions. 

This  alliance  between  planter  and  frontiersman  is  the 
key  to  the  political  policy  of  much  of  this  period.  This 
alliance  was  easier  at  this  time  than  at  any  later  period. 
Western  emigration  was  largely  from  the  Southern  states. 
The  great  stream  of  peoples  was  flowing  from  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas  through  the  Cumberland  Gap  into 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  South  saw  in  this  move¬ 
ment  an  extension  of  its  power  into  the  future  as  well  as 
geographically. 

Much  of  the  work  of  Jefferson  was  connected  with  the 
West.  He  had  been  active  in  formulating  the  Ordinance 
of  i787|for  the  government  of  the  Northwest  Territory 
during  the  dying  days  of  the  Confederation,  and  his  in¬ 
terest  in  the  Western  movement  had  always  been  close. 
He  devised  the  system  of  land  survey  by  townships, 
ranges,  and  sections,  that  has  done  so  much  to  make 
American  real  estate  more  thoroughly  a  commodity  than 
the  land  of  any  other  country.  He  bought  Louisiana,  sent 
Lewis  and  Clark,  and  Pike  to  explore  the  Far  West,  and 
began  the  famous  Cumberland  Road  as  a  part  of  an  ex¬ 
tensive  system  of  internal  improvements.  During  this 
period  Congress  was  always  willing  to  appropriate  money 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


129 


for  the  settlement  of  Indian  claims,  or  for  the  defense  of 
the  frontier  in  Indian  wars. 

To  all  these  measures  the  New  England  commercial 
interests  were  hostile.  To  a  certain  extent  this  was  a 
result  of  sectional  isolation  as  well  as  material  interests. 
New  England  had  developed  a  most  intense  sectional 
life,  with  its  own  customs,  prejudices,  dialects,  religion, 
and  local  patriotism,  and  because  of  the  intensive  char¬ 
acter  of  these  ideas  and  institutions,  was  to  impress  them 
deeply  upon  large  sections  of  the  country. 

Such  isolation  and  concentration  of  thought  and  in¬ 
terests  and  policy  were  bound  to  become  separatist  when 
they  were  antagonized.  When  the  Federalists  under 
Adams  passed  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  Kentucky  and 
Virginia  passed  resolutions  hinting  at  secession.  Now 
the  South  and  West  were  in  control,  with  Virginia  domi¬ 
nant,  and  it  was  the  turn  of  New  England,  with  Massa¬ 
chusetts  at  the  head,  to  become  “  treasonable.”  For 
several  years  this  section  was  openly  to  advocate  and 
secretly  to  plot  secession  until  another  turn  in  industrial 
development  should  give  New  England  interests  the 
ruling  hand,  when  the  doctrine  of  secession  would  once 
more  take  up  its  abode  in  the  South.1 

It  was  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  that  particularly 
aggravated  the  New  England  states.  This  was  an  appli¬ 
cation  of  their  own  philosophy  in  regard  to  the  constitu¬ 
tion.  There  was  no  provision  in  that  instrument  for 

1  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  42-48;  Wilson,  “A  History  of  the  American  People,”  Vol.  Ill, 
p.  184;  Hildreth,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  V,  p.  584;  Von 
Holst,  “Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  185- 


130 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


the  purchase  of  new  territory,  and  no  Federalist  had 
ever  given  as  “ liberal  construction”  to  a  constitutional 
question  as  did  Jefferson  when  he  purchased  Louisiana, 
and  provided  for  its  government  directly  from  the 
national  capital  without  the  consent  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  with  little  more  than  a  notification  to  Congress. 

However  discontented  New  England  might  be,  it  could 
not  be  denied  that  her  merchants  were  prosperous.  The 
high  tide  of  American  commerce  was  reached  in  1810  with 
a  total  tonnage  of  1,424,783  tons.  New  England  ships 
were  in  every  harbor.  The  Oriental  trade  had  become 
especially  profitable.  The  road  to  India  was  at  last 
running  through  America,  though  not  exactly  as  Colum¬ 
bus  had  dreamed. 

With  the  beginnings  of  a  factory  system  and  the  rise 
of  a  body  of  wageworkers  there  appear  traces  of  organized 
labor  and  a  struggle  between  employers  and  employees. 
The  petitions  to  Congress  for  higher  tariff  and  for  relief 
and  assistance  for  various  industries  all  complain  of  the 
high  wages  which  must  be  paid.  Such  a  complaint 
indicates  several  things  in  addition  to  the  political  im¬ 
potence  of  the  wageworkers.  It  is  a  fairly  sure  sign  that 
wages  were  rising,  rather  than  that  they  were  already 
high.  McMaster  concludes  from  his  investigations  that,1 

“The  rates  of  wages  were  different  in  each  of  the  three 
great  belts  along  which  population  was  streaming  west¬ 
ward.  The  highest  rates  were  paid  in  the  New  England 
belt,  which  stretched  across  the  country  from  Massachu¬ 
setts  to  Ohio.  The  lowest  rates  prevailed  in  the  southern 
belt,  which  extended  from  the  Carolinas  to  Louisiana. 

1  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  509-515, 
is  a  good  survey  of  labor  conditions. 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


J31 

In  each  of  these  bands  again  wages  were  lowest  on  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  and,  increasing  rapidly  in  a  western 
direction,  were  greatest  in  the  Mississippi  Valley.” 

A  contemporary  authority  furnishes  an  estimate  of  the 
wages  paid  at  this  time  in  the  most  northern  belt,  where 
they  were  supposed  to  be  the  highest.  His  figures  are 
as  follows : 1  — 


Wages  per  day  .  .  . 

1774 
.  $.50 

1804 

$•75 

1807 

$•75 

1809 

$.80 

Wheat  per  bushel  .  . 

.  .65 

i-55 

i-55 

1. 00 

These  wages  were  certainly  not  high  enough  to  seem 
to  require  any  action  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  enable 
the  employers  to  pay  them.  The  figures  for  the  last  two 
years  given  above  confirm  the  general  impression  that 
wages  were  rising  at  this  time.  Skilled  workmen  were 
beginning  to  organize  unions,  and  here  and  there  strikes 
took  place. 

Strikes  and  unions  were  still  illegal.  When  the  cord- 
wainers  (a  branch  of  the  shoemaking  trade)  went  out  on 
strike  in  Philadelphia  in  1805,  they  were  convicted  of 
conspiracy  and  fined,  after  which  they  opened  up  a  shop 
of  their  own  and  appealed  to  the  public  for  patronage. 

In  New  York  the  growth  of  a  wageworking  class  was 


1  Niles'  Register, V ol.  I,  p.  79  (quoting  from  Blodget’s  “Economics”; 
McMaster,  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  LXXV,  p.  22,  says  of  1800:  “Sol¬ 
diers  in  the  army  received  three  dollars  a  month.  Farm  hands  in  New 
England  were  given  $4  a  month  and  found  their  own  clothes.  Unskilled 
laborers  toiled  twelve  hours  per  day  for  fifty  cents.  Workmen  on  turn¬ 
pikes,  then  branching  out  in  every  direction,  were  housed  in  rude  sheds, 
fed  coarse  food,  and  given  $4  a  month  from  November  to  May  and 
$6  from  May  to  November.  When  the  road  from  Genesee  River  to 
Buffalo  was  under  construction  in  1812,  though  the  region  through  which 
it  went  was  frontier,  men  were  hired  in  plenty  for  $12  per  month  in  cash, 
and  their  board,  lodging,  and  a  daily  allowance  of  whisky.” 


132 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


having  another  effect.  Here  it  was  laying  the  foundations 
for  democracy.  During  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution,  and  the  Hamiltonian  re¬ 
gime,  the  property  qualifications  for  office  and  even  for 
the  suffrage  were  so  high  that  the  wageworking  class 
was  ignored  by  the  politicians.  Nor  were  the  members 
of  this  class  sufficiently  numerous  to  make  any  effective 
protest  against  this  disfranchisement.1 

During  the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  how¬ 
ever,  a  spirit  of  rebellion  against  these  restrictions  began 
to  oe  felt  in  New  York.  This  first  germ  of  a  labor  move¬ 
ment  sought  to  widen  the  political  powers  as  well  as 
improve  the  industrial  condition  of  its  members.  In 
New  York  some  success  was  achieved  in  this  direction, 
and  at  once  there  appeared  that  other  phase  of  class  rule 
under  the  form  of  democracy,  —  the  political  machine. 
Up  to  this  time  candidates  had  been  nominated  either 
by  informal  gatherings  of  “prominent  citizens ”  or  by 
caucuses  of  members  of  the  state  legislatures  or  Con¬ 
gress.2  Now  there  were  signs  of  so-called  “  popular  ” 
caucuses,  and  appeals  began  to  be  made  to  labor. 

On  the  whole,  this  was  a  period  of  the  beginning  of 
things  that  are  familiar  features  of  the  society  of  three 
quarters  of  a  century  later.  It  was  to  be  a  generation, 
however,  before  any  of  these  forces  were  to  become 
prominent,  social  features. 

Jefferson  went  into  office  as  the  exponent  of  the  idea 

1  “Memorial  History  of  New  York,”  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  13-14  ;  McMaster, 
“History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  Ill,  Chap.  XVII; 
Niles’  Register,  Vol.  I,  pp.  80-81,  contains  table  of  electoral  qualifica¬ 
tions  in  all  states. 

2  Ostrogorski,  “  Democracy  and  the  Organization  of  Political  Parties,” 
Vol.  II,  p.  12. 


RULE  OF  PLANTATION  AND  FRONTIER 


133 


that  the  constitution  should  be  “  strictly  construed,” 
that  the  central  government  should  be  closely  limited 
in  its  powers,  and,  above  all,  should  never  be  used  to 
serve  sectional  or  class  interests.  Yet  never  was  the 
constitution  stretched  farther  than  by  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana  and  its  government  direct  from  the  White 
House.  The  powers  which  the  Federal  government  ex¬ 
ercised  in  the  preliminary  steps  to  the  War  of  1812,  when 
an  embargo  was  laid  on  all  commerce  and  Federal  offi¬ 
cers  were  given  the  right  of  search  and  seizure,  exceeded 
anything  done  by  Hamilton.  The  fact  that  the  pos¬ 
session  of  centralized  power  led  Jefferson  to  use  and  ex¬ 
tend  that  power  in  the  interest  of  those  to  whom  he  owed 
his  election,  is  noted  by  nearly  all  historians.  Although 
he  came  into  office  talking  of  the  “ revolution”  due  to 
his  election,  yet, 

“The  great  mass  of  the  men,  who  in  1800  voted  for 
Adams,  could  in  1804  see  no  reason  whatever  for  voting 
against  Jefferson.  Scarcely  a  Federal  institution  was 
missed.  They  saw  the  debt,  the  bank,  the  navy,  still 
preserved ;  they  saw  a  broad  construction  of  the  consti¬ 
tution,  a  strong  government  exercising  the  rights  of  sov¬ 
ereignty,  paying  small  regard  to  the  rights  of  States,  and 
growing  more  and  more  national  day  by  day,  and  they 
gave  it  a  hearty  support,  as  a  government  administered 
on  the  principles  for  which,  ever  since  the  constitution 
was  in  force,  they  had  contended.” 1 

1  McMaster,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  198. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  WESTWARD  MARCH  OF  A  PEOPLE 

It  has  been  noted  that  with  Jefferson  a  new  political 
force  first  made  itself  felt  in  national  politics.  This  was 
the  frontier.  This  ever  moving  frontier  has  been  the  one 
distinctive  feature  of  American  society.  A  full  under¬ 
standing  of  its  influence  unlocks  many  a  difficult  problem 
in  that  history. 

He  who  would  write  the  history  of  Greece,  Italy,  or 
England  has  but  to  describe  the  life  of  a  body  of  people 
occupying  a  peninsula  in  the  Mediterranean,  or  an  island 
on  the  edge  of  the  Atlantic.  The  scene  of  his  story  is 
fixed.  But  the  history  of  the  United  States  is  the  de¬ 
scription  of  the  march  of  a  mighty  army  moving  westward 
in  conquest  of  forest  and  prairie. 

The  inundating  ocean  of  population  was  held  for  a 
moment  by  the  great  Alleghenian  dam.  At  the  period  we 
have  been  considering,  it  had  just  sought  out  the  low 
places  and  the  unguarded  ends  and  was  flowing  through 
and  around  that  dam.  Along  the  buffalo  paths,  the 
Indian  trails,  and  down  the  open  rivers  it  was  flowing  into 
the  great  Mississippi  Valley.  As  it  flowed  it  widened 
the  forest  trails  for  the  pack  trains,  and  graded  them  for 
turnpikes,  and  finally  leveled  the  hills  and  spanned  the 
rivers  with  bridges  on  which  to  lay  the  iron  track  of  the 
locomotive. 


134 


THE  WESTWARD  MARCH  OF  A  PEOPLE 


T35 


This  army  had  its  scouts,  its  advance  guard,  its  sap¬ 
pers  and  miners,  its  army  of  occupation.  These  various 
battalions  reproduced  in  turn  the  various  social  stages 
through  which  the  race  has  passed.  Biology  has  taught 
us  that  the  embryo  reproduces  in  syncopated  form  the 
various  steps  in  the  evolution  of  living  organisms.  The 
ethnologists  and  the  pedagogue  know  that  in  the  same 
manner  the  child  moves  through  mental  stages  much  like 
those  along  which  the  race  has  traveled.  In  the  same 
manner  the  successive  stages  of  settlement  in  the  march 
of  America’s  army  of  pioneers  tells  again  the  story  of 
social  evolution. 

The  advance  guard  of  hunters,  trappers,  fishermen, 
scouts,  and  Indian  fighters  reproduced  with  remarkable 
fidelity  the  social  stage  of  savagery.  They  lived  in  rude 
shelters  built  of  logs  or  of  prairie  sod,  found  their  food 
and  clothing  by  the  chase,  gathered  around  personal 
leaders,  were  often  lawless,  brutal,  and  quarrelsome, 
though  frequently  they  displayed  the  even  more  charac¬ 
teristically  savage  traits  of  taciturn  silence  and  fatalistic 
courage.  These  men  penetrated  hundreds  of  miles  into 
the  wilderness  ahead  of  all  fixed  settlements.  They 
sometimes  fraternized  and  lived  with  the  Indians.  Such 
were  the  French  coureurs  du  bois,  who  gathered  furs  from 
Hudson  Bay  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  exploring  rivers  that 
have  found  place  upon  the  maps  only  within  the  last  few 
decades. 

When  these  scouts  had  spied  out  the  land  the  first 
body  of  the  main  army  of  conquest  appeared.  This  was 
composed  of  the  little  groups  of  settlers  who  clustered 
along  the  watercourses  and  the  main  lines  of  advance. 

These  settlements,  drawn  together  for  mutual  defense 


136  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


against  the  Indians,  the  wild  beasts,  and  the  forest  fires, 
and  for  mutual  cooperation  in  house-raisings,  husking, 
quilting,  and  logging  “bees,”  with  their  “common” 
pastures  in  the  surrounding  forest  and  their  democratic 
social  and  political  organization,  were  so  much  like  the 
Germanic  “tuns”  described  by  Tacitus,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  villages  of  pre-Norman  days,  that  one  of  the  fore¬ 
most  American  historians  gravely  explains  the  resem¬ 
blance  by  the  classical  reading  of  New  England  Puritans. 

The  people  who  formed  this  stage  were  migratory.  No 
sooner  had  they  carved  out  a  little  clearing  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  than  they  moved  on  to  take  up  the  same  task  farther 
west.  They  too  rallied  around  leaders,  generally  com¬ 
bined  hunting  and  fishing  with  farming,  and  in  every 
war  in  which  the  United  States  has  been  involved,  save 
the  latest,  formed  its  most  effective  fighters.1 

With  this  social  stage  came  the  beginnings  of  agricul¬ 
ture.  It  was  a  crude  cultivation  of  the  soil  that  borrowed 
its  methods  as  well  as  its  only  important  crop  from  the 
Indians.  This  crop,  around  which  the  agricultural  life 
of  large  sections  of  the  country  has  centered  up  to  the 
present  time,  was  Indian  corn,  or  maize.  This  plant 
seems  to  have  been  especially  evolved  to  meet  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  the  American  frontier.  Without  it  another 

1  T.  Roosevelt,  “The  Winning  of  the  West/’  Vol.  V,  p.  128:  “The 
men  who  settle  in  a  new  country  and  begin  subduing  the  wilderness 
plunge  back  into  the  very  conditions  from  which  the  race  has  raised 
itself  by  the  slow  toil  of  ages.  The  conditions  cannot  but  tell  upon  them. 
Inevitably,  and  for  more  than  one  lifetime,  .  .  .  they  tend  to  retrograde 
instead  of  advancing.  They  drop  away  from  the  standard  which  highly 
civilized  nations  have  reached.  As  with  harsh  and  dangerous  labor 
they  bring  the  new  land  up  toward  the  level  of  the  old,  they  themselves 
partly  revert  to  their  ancestral  conditions;  they  sink  back  toward  the 
state  of  their  ages-dead  barbarian  forefathers.” 


THE  WESTWARD  MARCH  OF  A  PEOPLE 


137 


generation  or  more  would  have  been  required  for  the  ad¬ 
vancing  army  of  settlement  to  have  reached  the  Missis¬ 
sippi. 

It  can  be  grown  in  the  midst  of  the  forest  if  the  trees 
be  “ girdled”  by  removing  a  ring  of  bark,  which  causes 
the  leaves  to  fall  until  the  sunlight  can  filter  through. 
A  sharpened  stake  will  do  for  a  planting  tool  if  nothing 
better  is  at  hand.  It  will  produce  a  considerable  crop 
from  virgin  soil  with  little  cultivation,  and  responds  richly 
to  added  care.  It  grows  rapidly,  and  its  green  ears  furnish 
food  early  in  the  season.  When  ripe,  it  is  easy  of  storage, 
is  not  injured  by  freezing,  contains  a  great  amount  of 
nourishment  in  small  bulk,  and,  what  is  perhaps  most  im¬ 
portant  of  all,  can  be  most  easily  prepared  for  food.  In 
no  one  of  the  various  forms  in  which  it  entered  into  the 
dietary  of  the  pioneer  was  any  elaborate  preparation  re¬ 
quired.  On  a  pinch  an  open  fire  to  roast  the  green  ears 
or  the  ripened  kernels  sufficed  to  satisfy  hunger.  It  took 
the  place  of  the  pastures  to  which  the  colonists  had  been 
accustomed  in  Europe.  As  higher  stages  of  agriculture 
were  reached  it  became  the  foundation  of  the  entire  live¬ 
stock  industry  of  the  nation.1 

Following  this  stage  in  the  East,  and  preceding  it  in 
the  West,  where  the  Indians  were  held  back  by  the  regu- 

1  Roosevelt,  “Winning  of  the  West,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  iio-m  ;  Massachu¬ 
setts  Agricultural  Report,  1853,  p.  485;  Stickney,  “Use  of  Maize  by 
Wisconsin  Indians,”  p.  71;  Shaler,  “The  United  States  of  America,” 
Vol.  I,  pp.  26-27  5  Census  of  1880,  volume  on  “Agriculture,”  Part  I,  p.  135 ; 
J.  H.  Salisbury,  “History  and  Chemical  Investigation  of  Maize  ” ;  Parkin¬ 
son,  “  Tour  in  North  America,”  pp.  198-199 ;  Drake,  “  Pioneer  Life  in  Ken¬ 
tucky,”  pp.  47-57;  Michaux,  “Travels,”  etc.,  Chap.  XII.  These  are 
some  of  the  works  discussing  the  importance  of  corn  in  this  stage  of 
American  history  and  describing  the  methods  by  which  it  was  cultivated 
and  prepared  for  consumption. 


138  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


lar  army  and  not  driven  out  by  the  frontiersmen,  came 
a  third  division  composed  of  the  cowboys,  herdsmen, 
ranchmen,  as  they  were  variously  called.  Here  we  find 
a  reproduction  of  many  features  of  the  nomadic  stage  of 
social  evolution.  When  the  race  passed  through  this 
period,  the  large  social  unit  which  the  care  of  the  herds 
demands  was  supplied  by  the  patriarchal  family  so  famil¬ 
iar  in  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament.  In  America  the 
rancher  with  his  force  of  cowboys,  cooks,  etc.,  formed  a 
very  similar  self-supporting  unit.  We  are  accustomed 
to  think  of  this  stage  as  having  been  confined  to  the  sec¬ 
ond  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  the  Great  Plains 
region. 

Like  the  other  social  stages,  however,  it  has  traveled 
across  the  continent.  It  existed  wherever  abundant 
pasture  could  be  found,  not  yet  divided  into  farms,  and 
not  too  far  from  a  market  to  permit  the  driving  of  the 
cattle  to  the  place  of  slaughter.  This  stage  was  found 

ham 

prior  to  the  Revolution  in  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia,  on 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghenies.1  It  came  over  the 

1  John  H.  Logan,  “History  of  the  Upper  Country  of  South  Carolina,” 
speaking  of  prerevolutionary  times,  says  (pp.  1 51-15 2) :  “Not  far  from 
the  log  hut  of  the  hunter  stood  that  of  the  cow-driver.  .  .  .  The 
business  of  stock-raising  at  this  time  on  the  frontier  was  scarcely  less 
profitable  than  it  is  at  present  (1859)  in  similar  regions  of  the  West. 
.  .  .  Having  selected  a  tract  where  cane  and  pea-vines  grew  most 
luxuriantly,  they  erected  in  the  midst  of  it  temporary  cabins  and  spa¬ 
cious  pens.  These  were  used  as  inclosures  in  which  to  collect  the  cattle 
at  proper  seasons,  for  the  purpose  of  counting  and  branding  them;  and 
from  many  such  places  in  the  upper  country,  vast  numbers  of  beeves 
were  annually  driven  to  the  distant  markets  of  Charleston,  Philadelphia, 
and  even  New  York.  .  .  .  These  rude  establishments  became  after¬ 
wards,  wherever  they  were  formed,  the  great  centers  of  settlements 
founded  by  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  who  followed  just  behind  the  cow- 
drivers  in  their  enterprising  search  for  unappropriated  productive  lands.” 


THE  WESTWARD  MARCH  OF  A  PEOPLE 


I39 


mountains  behind  the  hunters,  trappers,  and  conquerors 
of  the  wilderness  and  flourished  in  the  wild  pea  pastures 
along  the  Ohio.  By  1830  this  stage  was  reached  on  the 
prairies  of  Illinois;  a  decade  later  it  had  crossed  the 
Mississippi,  where  it  was  to  reach  its  final  spectacular 
efflorescence  on  the  Great  Plains  at  the  foot  of  the 
Rockies. 

Following  the  ranch  came  the  small  farmer,  permanent 
towns,  manufacturing,  and  the  general  features  of  the 
small,  competitive  system.  From  here  on  to  the  present 
the  course  of  evolution  will  be  considered  under  other 
heads. 

Within  each  of  these  stages,  and  more  especially  the 
latter,  there  have  been  minor  divisions  that  have  moved 
across  the  country  within  the  general  army  at  approx¬ 
imately  the  same  rate  of  speed.  Some  of  these  divisions 
have  never  occupied  certain  sections.  Changes  in  meth¬ 
ods  of  transportation  have  fundamentally  altered  the 
whole  order  of  progress  of  the  army.  Yet  in  spite  of  these 
deviations  from  the  ideal  simplicity  that  has  been 
sketched,  the  mighty  fact  of  these  onward  marching 
battalions  of  society  is  the  dominant  feature  of  Amer¬ 
ican  history,  without  a  grasp  of  which  that  history  is  an 
almost  unintelligible  maze. 

When  we  speak  of  the  “frontier,”  therefore,  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  that  we  say  which  frontier  is  meant,  for  the  ad¬ 
vancing  crest  of  each  of  these  waves  has  been  the  frontier 
for  that  social  stage.  The  word  is  most  frequently 
applied  to  the  stage  in  which  the  wilderness  was  cleared, 
the  prairie  sod  broken,  and  the  land  made  fit  for  agricul¬ 
ture.  As  it  is  used  henceforth  in  this  work,  unless  other¬ 
wise  defined,  it  will  be  applied  to  that  whole  series  of 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


frontiers  up  to  the  time  of  the  coming  of  small  industries 
and  competitive  capitalism. 

While  the  frontier  existed,  this  was  the  only  country 
in  the  world  that  for  many  generations  permitted  its 
inhabitants  to  choose  in  which  of  the  historic  stages  of 
social  evolution  they  would  live.  The  competition- 
crushed,  unemployed,  or  black-listed  worker  of  cap¬ 
italism  moved  west  into  the  small,  competitive  stage 
with  its  greater  opportunities  for  self-employment  or 
for  “rising.”  He  could  move  onward  geographically 
and  backward  historically  to  the  semicommunistic  stage 
of  the  first  permanent  settlers  who  would  help  him  raise 
his  log  cabin  and  clear  the  ground  for  his  first  crop  of  corn. 
If  he  felt  himself  hemmed  in  by  even  the  slight  restric¬ 
tions  of  this  stage,  he  could  shoulder  his  rifle  and  revert  to 
the  wilderness  and  savagery. 

The  frontier  has  been  the  great  amalgamating  force 
in  American  life.  It  took  the  European  and  in  a  single 
lifetime  sent  him  through  the  racial  evolution  of  a  hun¬ 
dred  generations.  When  he  had  finished,  the  few  pecul¬ 
iar  customs  he  had  brought  from  a  single  country  were 
gone,  and  he  was  that  peculiarly  twentieth  century 
product,  —  the  typical  American.  Only  since  the  fron¬ 
tier  has  disappeared  have  great  colonies  grown  up  in 
which  all  the  national  peculiarities  of  those  who  compose 
them  are  accentuated  by  the  internal  resistance  to  the 
seemingly  hostile  territory  about  them. 

Those  individuals  who  are  most  commonly  instanced 
as  distinctively  American  are  largely  born  of  the  fron¬ 
tier  and  have  passed  through  its  successive  stages. 

The  frontier  has  given  rise  to  the  only  race  of  hereditary 
rebels  in  history.  One  strange  feature  of  this  westward 


THE  WESTWARD  MARCH  OF  A  PEOPLE 


141 

march  has  been  the  remarkable  tendency  of  the  same 
families  to  remain  continuously  in  the  same  social  stage, 
moving  westward  as  the  succeeding  stage  encroached 
upon  the  one  they  had  chosen.  The  fathers  of  those  who 
settled  on  the  Great  Plains  and  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Cordilleras  lived  in  the  states  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
and  their  grandparents  conquered  the  forests  in  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  while  the  preceding  genera¬ 
tion  had  its  home  in  western  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
or  Virginia. 

This  pioneer  race  had  large  families,  a  high  death- 
rate,  but  a  far  higher  birthright.  It  has  been  pointed 
out  that  this  applied  the  principle  of  natural  selection  in 
a  most  pitiless  and  effective  manner.1  It  produced  a  race 
physically  large  and  strong,  mentally  alert,  and  socially 
rebellious.  It  is  a  race  willing  to  try  social  experiments. 
The  man  who  within  his  own  lifetime  has  seen  the  whole 
process  of  social  evolution  going  on  under  his  eyes  is 
not  a  believer  in  the  unchangeableness  of  social  institu¬ 
tions. 

These  social  stages  have  not  existed  side  by  side  with¬ 
out  friction.  Each  has  desired  to  use  the  government 
to  further  its  interests.  In  this  conflict  of  interest  is 
found  an  explanation  of  many  political  struggles.  It 
was  such  a  clash  of  interests  that  made  itself  felt  in  the 
fight  over  the  constitution.  It  was  a  factor  in  the  elec¬ 
tion  of  Jefferson.  It  appears  again  and  again  throughout 
American  history. 

In  many  respects  the  description  of  the  frontier  and 
its  progress  which  has  been  given  here  applies  only  to 
the  non-slaveholding  states.  While  slavery  existed  it 

1  Doyle,  “English  Colonies  in  America,”  Vol.  II,  p.  56. 


142 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


changed  the  method  of  westward  advance  in  the  South 
fundamentally.  The  struggle  of  these  two  methods  of 
westward  movement  culminated  in  the  Civil  War,  and 
it  was  the  battle  for  the  frontier  that  brought  the  slavery 
question  to  a  climax. 

These  various  general  features  of  the  frontier  movement 
are  brought  together  in  this  chapter,  not  in  order  to  treat 
them  in  full,  but  in  order  to  emphasize  this  highly  sig¬ 
nificant  phase  of  American  history  and  make  more  com¬ 
prehensible  a  whole  series  of  questions  which  must  ap¬ 
pear  in  the  consideration  of  that  history.1 

1  F.  J.  Turner,  “The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  History,” 
is  by  far  the  best  discussion  of  this  phase  of  American  history.  See  also 
Semple,  “American  History  and  its  Geographic  Conditions,”  Chap.  IV  ; 
and  Gannet,  “The  Building  of  a  Nation,”  p.  39  et  seq. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 

So  far  as  battles,  campaigns,  glorious  victories,  great 
diplomacy,  and  other  similar  paraphernalia  with  which 
some  historians  are  mainly  concerned,  the  War  of  1812 
was  insignificant.  While  jingos  boast  of  “how  we  licked 
the  Britishers,”  and  it  occupies  much  space  in  our  school 
histories,  yet  in  a  wider  and  more  accurate  vision  this 
war  is  seen  to  be  but  a  small  incident  in  the  great  world 
war  in  which  Napoleon  was  the  central  figure.  Among 
the  many  nicknames  that  have  been  applied  to  this  con¬ 
flict  is  “The  War  of  Paradoxes.”  It  was  waged  in  de¬ 
fense  of  maritime  interests,  but  the  merchant  states 
threatened  to  secede  to  stop  it.  The  alleged  cause  of  the 
war  (the  English  “Orders  in  Council”)  was  repealed 
before  war  was  declared.  The  most  important  battle  of 
the  war  (New  Orleans)  was  fought  after  the  treaty  of 
peace  had  been  signed,  and  the  original  subject  of  dis¬ 
pute  (impressment  of  seamen)  was  never  mentioned  in 
the  treaty  of  peace.  Finally,  the  New  England  states 
that  were  so  eager  for  peace  were  ruined  by  its  coming, 
and  the  South  that  desired  war  found  its  prosperity  in 
peace. 

Although  many  generations  of  children  have  been 
taught  that  this  war  was  a  series  of  “glorious  victories,” 
respect  for  truth  compels  the  statement  that  the  United 
States  was  whipped  in  nearly  every  campaign,  that  the 

143 


144  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

capitol  was  burned,  the  coast  closely  blockaded  through¬ 
out  the  war,  and  in  spite  of  all  the  stories  of  how  “we 
humbled  the  mistress  of  the  seas,”  the  American  navy 
was  practically  wiped  out  of  existence. 

The  story  of  the  origin  of  the  war  explains  some  of  these 
contradictions.  England  was  battling  with  Napoleon 
for  the  mastery  of  Europe  and  of  the  world.  She  was 
victorious  on  the  seas,  and  was  depending  upon  that  com¬ 
mercial  supremacy  for  resources  with  which  to  fight.  In 
this  titanic  conflict  both  sides  were  determined  that  there 
should  be  no  neutrals.  They  could  not  well  make  any 
other  decision.  The  war  was  so  much  for  commercial 
supremacy  that  to  admit  the  existence  of  a  neutral  was 
to  give  that  neutral  control  of  the  object  for  which  the 
struggle  was  waged. 

Napoleon  had  declared  a  blockade  of  England,  and 
England  had  blockaded  nearly  all  of  Europe  to  ships 
that  had  not  first  cleared  from  a  British  port.  Napoleon 
in  turn  had  declared  that  all  ships  that  did  so  clear  were 
contraband  of  war.  The  result  of  these  “Orders  in 
Council”  and  “Berlin  and  Milan  Decrees”  was  that  Eng¬ 
lish  and  French  ships  preyed  upon  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States.  In  spite  of  this  fact,  American  commerce 
grew  in  a  most  startling  manner,  until  a  few  New  Eng¬ 
land  states  were  carrying  almost  one  third  of  the  com¬ 
merce  of  the  world. 

In  her  effort  to  secure  sailors  to  man  the  gigantic  navy 
required  by  the  Napoleonic  wars,  England  was  in  the 
habit  of  stopping  merchant  vessels  of  the  United  States 
and  impressing  such  members  of  their  crews  as  she  desired, 
with  the  excuse  that  they  were  British  deserters.  To  be 
sure  a  large  percentage  of  the  men  so  seized  were  deserters 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 


145 


from  the  British  navy.  The  great  profits  of  American 
commerce  enabled  the  shipowners  to  pay  such  wages 
that  every  British  warship  anchoring  in  American  waters 
lost  a  good  portion  of  its  crew. 

The  plantation  interests  represented  by  Jefferson  had 
little  understanding  or  sympathy  with  the  New  England 
merchants.  Jefferson  was  inclined  to  temporize  and 
experiment.  At  first  the  New  England  merchants  were 
belligerent  in  their  talk  and  petitions  to  Congress,  but 
they  soon  discovered  that  more  money  could  be  made 
running  blockades  than  in  a  domestic  war,  and  became 
the  strongest  opponents  of  all  retaliatory  measures. 

The  cotton  planters,  on  the  other  hand,  were  anxious 
for  war,  or  at  least  for  some  sort  of  reprisals  directed 
against  England.1  They  were  selling  their  cotton  to 
that  country.  The  price  was  low,  and  the  old  antag¬ 
onism  between  buyer  and  seller  was  being  felt.  This  an¬ 
tagonism,  however,  was  not  sufficiently  sharp  to  lead  to 
war.  It  led  rather  to  a  series  of  peculiar  legislative  acts 
based  upon  the  idea  that  a  country  could  be  punished  by 
withholding  commerce.  The  result  of  this  attitude  was 
the  passage  of  the  “Embargo”  and  the  “Noninter¬ 
course”  acts. 

These  measures  were  based  upon  the  idea  that  the 
trade  of  a  country  is  a  sort  of  isolated  entity  that  can  be 
withheld  and  granted  or  directed  wherever  and  when¬ 
ever  such  action  is  desired.  By  withholding  the  Ameri¬ 
can  trade  Jefferson  thought  to  punish  England.  The 
“Embargo”  forbade  American  ships  to  leave  their  har¬ 
bors  save  for  coast  trade.  Since  a  large  proportion  of 

1  U.  B.  Phillips,  “Georgia  and  State  Rights,”  in  Annual  Report 
of  American  Historical  Association,  1901,  Vol.  II,  pp.  99-100. 


146  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

American  histories  have  been  written  by  persons  with 
New  England  prejudices,  these  histories  nearly  all  de¬ 
clare  the  ‘‘Embargo”  to  have  been  a  terrible  failure.  In 
truth  it  paralyzed  many  branches  of  British  industry, 
sent  the  price  of  flour  to  $19  a  barrel  in  England,  caused 
great  petitions  to  be  sent  to  Parliament  begging  for  relief, 
and,  finally,  actually  accomplished  the  object  for  which  it 
was  laid,  —  secured  the  repeal  of  the  “  Orders  in  Council,” 
even  though  the  news  of  that  repeal  came  too  late  to 
avert  war.1 

During  the  war  the  New  England  merchants  carried 
their  opposition  to  the  farthest  point  possible  without 
taking  up  actual  hostilities  against  the  national  govern¬ 
ment.  They  advocated  secession,  refused  to  subscribe 
to  the  national  loan,  encouraged  their  militia  to  rebel 
against  orders  of  the  national  government,  sent  large 
sums  of  specie  to  Canada  for  British  drafts,  supplied 
food  to  the  British  armies  and  ships,  and  in  general  did 
everything  that  would  bring  a  profit  and  injure  the 
national  government.2 

This  war  has  also  been  called  “The  Second  War  for 
Independence.”  There  is  more  than  a  little  justice  in 
the  name.  But  that  independence  was  not  gained  at 
Lundy’s  Lane,  or  New  Orleans,  by  Perry  on  Lake  Erie 
or  by  the  victory  of  the  Constitution  over  the  Guerriere. 
That  independence  came  through  developments  in  a 
wholly  different  field.  It  was  a  result  of  the  industrial 
transformation  wrought  by  the  war. 

1  McMaster,  “  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  IV, 
pp.  1-2. 

2  Babcock,  “Rise  of  American  Nationality,”  pp.  156-158;  Dewey, 
“Financial  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  133. 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 


147 


The  most  important  event  of  the  period  was  the  birth 
of  a  royal  heir,  the  last  of  the  long  line  of  ruling  classes 
that  have  dominated  society  since  the  appearance  of 
private  property.  This  last  prince  of  the  line  of  class 
rule  was  the  machine-owning  capitalist  class.  The 
United  States  census  of  1900  is  authority  for  the  state¬ 
ment  that  “the  factory  system  obtained  its  first  foothold 
in  the  United  States  during  the  period  of  the  Embargo 
and  the  War  of  1812.”  To  be  sure,  this  same  authority 
assures  us  that, 

“The  manufacture  of  cotton  and  wool  passed  rapidly 
from  the  household  to  the  mill,  but  the  methods  of  do¬ 
mestic  and  neighborhood  industry  continued  to  pre¬ 
dominate,  even  in  these  industries  down  to,  and  includ¬ 
ing,  the  decade  between  1820  and  1830;  and  it  was  not 
until  about  1840  that  the  factory  method  of  manufacture 
extended  itself  widely  to  miscellaneous  industries,  and 
began  rapidly  to  force  from  the  market  the  handmade 
commodities  with  which  every  community  had  hitherto 
supplied  itself.” 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  factory  industry  had  been 
struggling  for  a  foothold  since  the  beginning  of  the  cen¬ 
tury,  and  that  much  boasting  had  been  made  of  the  extent 
to  which  manufacturing  was  carried  on,  the  opening  of 
the  war  saw  the  country  in  such  a  dependent  condi¬ 
tion  that  the  Secretary  of  War  begged  that  the  Em¬ 
bargo  be  raised  temporarily  in  order  that  the  government 
might  obtain  the  woolen  blankets  that  were  required  in 
the  Indian  trade,  since  these  could  not  be  produced  in 
the  United  States. 

Any  war  tends  artificially  to  stimulate  manufactures. 
The  purchase  of  large  quantities  of  uniform  articles 


148  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

favors  the  factory  rather  than  the  household  producer. 
Government  specifications  frequently  provided  that  the 
goods  must  be  of  American  manufacture.  With  no 
foreign  competition,  a  limited  number  of  domestic  pro¬ 
ducers,  and  production  inadequate  to  demand,  factories 
yielded  several  hundred  per  cent  profit. 

As  had  been  the  case  in  Europe,  the  mercantile  cap¬ 
italists  had  accumulated  the  capital  for  the  establishment 
of  the  factory  system.  Woodrow  Wilson  notes  that, 
“The  very  shipowners  of  the  trading  ports  had  in  many 
instances  sold  their  craft  and  put  their  capital  into  the 
manufacture  of  such  things  as  were  most  immediately 
needed  for  the  home  market.”  1 

Another  law  of  historical  evolution  is  illustrated  in  the 
way  that  the  rising  social  class  found  expression  in  the 
social  consciousness.  Every  effort  was  made  to  encour¬ 
age  manufactures.  Societies  were  formed,  premiums 
offered,  bounties  paid,  tax  exemptions  granted,  and  every 
possible  means  for  the  fostering  of  manufactures  was  put 
into  operation. 

The  most  strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  entice  for¬ 
eign  artisans  to  America.  All  their  effects  were  exempt 
from  duty.  Pennsylvania  hastened  to  grant  them  es¬ 
pecial  privileges  of  citizenship.  Many  legislatures  passed 
resolutions  pledging  their  members  to  wear  only  home¬ 
made  goods.  To  encourage  the  woolen  industry,  bounties 
were  offered  for  the  importation  of  merino  sheep,  and 
Pennsylvania  taxed  dogs  to  raise  money  with  which  to 
import  rams  of  this  famous  breed. 

1  “History of  the  American  People,”  Vol.  Ill,  p.  240;  D.  B.  Warden, 
“  An  Account  of  the  United  States  of  America”  (1819),  pp.  262-263; 
Matthew  Carey,  “New  Olive  Branch,”  Chap.  V. 


THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 


149 


Manufactures  could  not  fail  to  flourish  under  such 
conditions.  In  the  production  of  cotton  there  were  87 
mills  in  1811  operating  80,000  spindles  and  producing 
2,880,000  pounds  of  yarn,  with  4000  employees.  By  1815 
there  were  half  a  million  spindles  running,  with  76,000 
employees,  working  up  27,000,000  pounds  of  raw  cotton. 
The  iron  industry  developed  to  the  point  where  it  lacked 
but  3000  tons  of  supplying  the  whole  country.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  it  now  began  to  center  around  Pitts¬ 
burg.  Earthenware,  glass,  cordage,  and  all  manner  of 
wooden  ware  manufactures  shot  up  into  prominence. 

The  number  of  patents  rapidly  increased.  The  first 
complete  mill  for  the  production  of  cotton  cloth  was  set 
up  by  Francis  C.  Lowell  at  Waltham,  Massachusetts, 
in  1815.  Elkanah  Cobb,  of  Vermont,  invented  a  ma¬ 
chine  for  weaving  blankets  that  did  the  work  of  several 
men. 

Soon  the  manufacturing  capitalist  began  to  develop 
even  more  clearly  the  outlines  of  a  definite  class  con¬ 
sciousness.  Niles ’  Weekly  Register ,  the  great  organ 
of  the  manufacturers  during  the  next  forty  years,  was 
started  in  Baltimore,  September,  1811.  From  the  begin¬ 
ning  it  was  an  active  defender  of  protective  tariffs.  In 
1819  we  hear  it  voicing  the  jealousy  of  the  manufacturers 
and  shipowners  for  the  favor  of  the  national  government. 

One  of  the  memorials  sent  by  the  manufacturers  to 
Congress  at  this  time  makes  a  suggestive  complaint  and 
explanation  in  these  words : 1  — 

“The  fostering  care  bestowed  on  commerce  —  the 
various  statutes  enacted  in  its  favor  —  the  expense 
incurred  for  that  purpose  —  the  complete  protection 
1  Niles’  Register ,  July  17,  1819,  p.  351. 


150  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


it  has  experienced,  form  a  most  striking  contrast  with 
the  situation  of  manufactures,  and  the  sacrifice  of  those 
interested  in  them.  .  .  .  There  is  but  one  way  to 
account  for  the  care  bestowed  on  the  commercial  and 
the  neglect  of  the  manufacturing  interests.  The  former 
has  at  all  times  been  well  represented  in  Congress  and 
the  latter,  never.” 

The  period  immediately  succeeding  the  war  came 
near  to  strangling  the  infant  manufacturing  industry 
in  the  cradle.  As  had  been  the  case  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolution,  European  and  especially  British  manu¬ 
facturers  poured  a  flood  of  goods  upon  the  American 
market.  They  could  the  more  easily  do  this  since  the 
Napoleonic  wars  ended  with  the  battle  of  Waterloo  in 
1815.  But  the  whole  fabric  of  American  society  was 
changing,  and  in  that  change  the  factory  system  was  to 
find  new  strength  and  grow  until  it  became  the  dominant 
factor  in  that  society. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


CHANGING  INTERESTS 

In  the  twenty  years  immediately  following  the  War 
of  1812  forces  were  evolving,  institutions  arising  and 
changing,  centers  of  social  gravity  shifting,  and  deep 
basic  movements  of  various  sorts  taking  place  that  have 
had  the  most  lasting  effects  upon  the  whole  structure 
of  American  life. 

It  was  essentially  a  time  of  realignment  of  interests, 
and  of  changes  in  social  attitude. 

America  had  hitherto  looked  eastward  across  the 
Atlantic.  Sometimes  it  looked  with  anger,  but  always 
with  interest,  and  its  problems  were  entangled  with 
those  of  the  older  continent.  Public  questions  turned 
on  points  located,  in  part  at  least,  beyond  the  national 
boundaries.  The  dominant  economic  activity,  aside 
from  agriculture,  had  been  commerce,  and  commerce 
is  always  concerned  with  external  affairs.  The  in¬ 
dustrial,  social,  and  political  upheavals  that  had 
taken  place  in  Europe  during  the  early  years  of  the 
American  Republic  were  such  as  to  attract  attention. 
The  French  Revolution  and  the  Napoleonic  wars  were 
dramas  that  compelled  the  attention  of  the  world. 

After  the  War  of  1812  the  American  social  mind 
became  introspective.  Henceforth  it  was  not  to  be 
concerned  primarily  with  treaties,  commercial  bounties, 


152  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


impressment,  embargoes,  and  matters  of  the  open  sea 
and  distant  lands,  but  with  turnpikes  and  canals,  tariffs 
and  manufactures,  public  lands,  currency,  banks,  crises, 
poverty,  state  sovereignty,  and  chattel  slavery.1 

It  was  not  alone  that  commerce  was  declining  and 
manufactures  growing.  The  people  themselves  were 
leaving  the  seaboard  and  setting  their  faces  toward  the 
West.  The  dribbling  streams  of  immigrants  that  had 
been  pressing  through  the  clefts  in  the  Alleghenies  now 
became  a  mighty  flood  that  poured  over  and  around  these 
barriers  and  swept  down  upon  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Between  1815  and  1820  western  Pennsylvania,  with 
Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  southern  Ohio  and  Indiana, 
were  filled  with  a  hustling  population. 

During  this  period  the  people  of  the  Ohio  Valley 
reached  the  small  farmer  stage.  Since  each  farm  was 
a  small  household  manufacturing  establishment,  and 
especially  as  the  beginnings  of  the  factory  system  were 
also  apparent,  this  locality  developed  a  protectionist 
sentiment.  Its  most  pressing  need,  however,  was  for 
better  transportation  facilities.  It  is  not  surprising, 

1  Boston  Yankee,  Nov.  4,  1819  :  “The  time  appears  to  be  fast  ap¬ 
proaching  when  an  important  change  must  take  place  in  the  situation 
of  the  people  of  this  country.  The  unexampled  success  of  American 
commerce  during  the  late  troubled  state  of  Europe  appears  to  have  fairly 
intoxicated  the  population  of  this  country.  Every  newspaper  from 
N.  Orleans  to  Maine  was  loud  in  advocating  the  commercial  policy; 
but  the  tranquillity  of  Europe  has  wrought  such  a  change  in  the  commer¬ 
cial  world  that  the  Americans  begin  to  see  and  feel  that  it  is  not  on  com¬ 
merce  alone  they  must  depend.  New  evidence  arises  every  day  to  prove 
that  we  cannot  entirely  be  a  commercial  people.  The  prosperity  of 
the  U.S.  is  bottomed  upon  the  success  of  agriculture  and  manufactures, 
which  begin  to  excite  interest  in  proportion  to  the  decline  of  commerce.” 
See  also  McMaster,  “A  Century  of  Social  Service,”  Atlantic  Monthly , 
Vol.  LXXIX,  p.  23 ;  F.  J.  Turner,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Jan.,  1903,  p.  84. 


CHANGING  INTERESTS 


*53 


therefore,  that  Henry  Clay,  “the  father  of  the  American 
protective  system”  and  the  great  champion  of  internal 
improvements,  should  have  been  sent  to  Congress  from 
Kentucky  during  this  period. 

The  South  was  also  undergoing  an  industrial  transfor¬ 
mation.  Here  it  was  not  the  supplanting  of  one  form 
of  industry  by  another  so  much  as  the  rise  of  a  new  crop 
that  was  working  the  change.  The  invention  of  the 
cotton  gin  had  made  the  cultivation  of  upland  cotton 
profitable,  and  as  a  consequence  the  competition  of 
Western  lands  was  ruining  the  agriculture  of  the  sea¬ 
board.  The  “  Virginia  dynasty,”  composed  of  the  Wash¬ 
ingtons,  Madisons,  Jeffersons,  Randolphs,  and  others, 
whose  families  came  across  the  Atlantic  at  the  time  of 
the  Commonwealth  in  England,  were  being  impoverished, 
and  losing  their  industrial  power,  were  being  relegated 
to  the  rear  politically. 

So  complete  was  the  industrial  decline  of  Virginia  that 
one  observer  declared  that  the  larger  plantations  were 
nearly  all  plunging  their  owners  deeper  and  deeper  into 
debt.  In  1830  John  Randolph  prophesied  that  the 
time  was  coming  when  the  masters  would  run  away 
from  the  slaves  and  be  advertised  for  in  the  public 
papers.1  It  was  during  this  period  that  Thomas  Jeffer¬ 
son  became  so  impoverished  that  public  subscriptions 
were  raised  to  relieve  him  and  Congress  purchased  his 
library,  a  transaction  from  which  sprung  the  present 
magnificent  Congressional  Library.2 

It  is  not  surprising  that  such  an  industrial  condition 
should  have  given  rise  to  considerable  antislavery  sen- 

1  Frederick  J.  Turner,  “The  Rise  of  the  New  West,”  p.  59. 

2  Thomas  Watson,  “  Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson,”  p.  508. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


timent  in  Virginia.  This  sentiment  was  of  short  dura¬ 
tion.  In  another  generation  the  upland  cotton  planters 
and  the  Louisiana  sugar  raisers  were  demanding  slaves 
in  such  numbers  that  their  production  in  Virginia  became 
a  profitable  industry. 

In  New  England,  although  the  old  fishing  and  mer¬ 
cantile  rulers  were  passing  off  the  stage,  many  of  the 
same  families  succeeded  to  the  line  of  power  by  investing 
their  capital  in  the  rapidly  growing  manufactures. 

Until  this  period  the  merchants  and  the  commercial 
interests,  in  alliance  with  the  Southern  planters,  had 
controlled  the  national  government.  The  manufac¬ 
turers  who  were  struggling  for  influence  in  that  govern¬ 
ment  were  quick  to  point  out  the  extent  to  which  the 
nation  had  used  its  machinery  for  the  benefit  of  com¬ 
merce.  Matthew  Carey,  the  great  spokesman  of  the 
manufacturing  interests,  places  upon  the  title  pages  of 
his  “ Essays  on  Political  Economy”  a  table  comparing  the 
treatment  accorded  to  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
manufactures.  In  his  “New  Olive  Branch”  he  points 
out  that, 

“The  second  act  passed  by  the  first  Congress  contained 
clauses  which  secured  to  the  tonnage  of  our  merchants 
a  monopoly  of  the  whole  China  trade  —  and  gave  them 
paramount  advantages  in  all  other  foreign  trade.  .  .  . 

“The  same  act  gave  our  merchants  an  additional  deci¬ 
sive  advantage  by  allowing  a  discount  of  ten  per  cent 
on  the  duties  upon  goods  imported  in  American  vessels. 

“The  tonnage  duty  upon  vessels  belonging  to  American 
citizens  was  fixed  at  six  cents  a  ton;  on  American-built 
vessels,  owned  wholly  or  in  part  by  foreigners,  thirty 
cents ;  and  on  all  other  foreign  vessels,  fifty  cents. 


CHANGING  INTERESTS 


155 


“In  order  to  exclude  foreign  vessels  from  the  coasting 
trade  they  were  subjected  to  a  tonnage  duty  of  fifty 
cents  per  ton  for  every  voyage ;  whereas  our  vessels  paid 
but  six  cents,  and  only  once  a  year.” 

The  methods  by  which  these  favors  for  the  mercantile 
interest  were  secured  are  very  clearly  understood  by 
Carey,  and  he  instances  them  as  an  example  that  must 
be  followed  by  the  manufacturers  if  they  are  to  have  the 
use  of  the  government  to  defend  their  interests. 

“It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  this  parental  care,” 
he  tells  us.  “The  mercantile  interest  was  ably  repre¬ 
sented  in  the  first  Congress.  It  made  a  judicious  selec¬ 
tion  of  candidates,  and  carried  the  elections  pretty  gen¬ 
erally  in  the  seaport  towns.  .  .  .  The  representation 
in  Congress  was  divided  almost  wholly  between  farmers, 
planters,  and  merchants.  The  manufacturing  interest 
was,  I  believe,  unrepresented ;  or,  if  it  had  a  few  repre¬ 
sentatives,  they  were  not  distinguished  men,  and  had 
little  or  no  influence.  It  shared  the  melancholy  fate  of 
all  unrepresented  bodies  in  all  ages  and  all  nations.” 

As  fond  parents  are  prone  to  predict  brilliant  futures 
for  each  new-born  infant,  so  at  the  time  of  the  birth  of 
the  factory  system  the  most  extravagant  blessings  were 
expected  from  its  development.  Even  the  columns  of 
the  Annals  of  Congress  break  into  peans  of  promise, 
singing  of  the  blessings  to  be  brought  with  the  new 
machinery.  In  a  report  submitted  by  Tench  Coxe  in 
1814  he  congratulates  the  workers  of  America  on  “the 
variety  of  ingenious  mechanisms,  processes,  and  devices, 
which,  while  they  save  labor,  manifestly  exempt  them 
from  the  deleterious  modes  of  the  old  manufacturing 
system.”  He  proceeds  in  a  strain  that  has  a  queer 


156  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


sound  in  the  ears  of  those  who  have  seen  the  effects 
actually  produced  by  these  machines :  — 

“Women,  relieved  in  a  considerable  degree  from  their 
former  employments  as  carders,  weavers,  and  fullers  by 
hand,  occasionally  turn  to  the  occupation  of  the  weaver, 
with  improved  machinery  and  instruments,  which  abridge 
and  soften  the  labor,  while  the  male  weavers  employ 
themselves  in  superintendence,  instruction,  superior 
or  other  operations,  and  promote  their  health  by  occa¬ 
sional  attention  to  gardening,  agriculture,  and  the  clear¬ 
ing  and  improvement  of  their  farms.  .  .  .  These  won¬ 
derful  machines,  working  as  if  they  were  animated  beings, 
endowed  with  all  the  talents  of  their  inventors,  laboring 
with  organs  that  never  tire,  and  subject  to  no  expense 
of  food,  or  bed,  or  raiment,  or  dwelling,  may  be  justly 
considered  as  an  equivalent  to  an  immense  body  of 
manufacturing  recruits  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the 
country.”  1 

Unfortunately  for  this  idyllic  picture  the  machines 
became  instruments  of  private  profit  in  the  hands  of  a 
class  of  non-workers  who  soon  became  a  power  in  the 
national  government,  while  those  who  operated  these 
instruments  were  doomed  to  exploitation,  and,  to  para¬ 
phrase  the  words  of  Matthew  Carey,  quoted  above, 
“shared  the  melancholy  fate  of  all  unrepresented  bodies 
in  all  ages  and  all  nations.” 

While  the  old  ruling  class  in  the  South  and  in  New 
England  was  being  disrupted  by  the  disintegration  of 
its  economic  base,  the  new  economic  class  of  manufac¬ 
turers  was  gaining  political  power  and  influence.  By 
1816  it  was  able  to  carry  through  Congress  a  tariff  law 

1  Annals,  1814,  Appendix,  pp.  2601-2602. 


CHANGING  INTERESTS 


157 


with  fairly  strong  protective  features.  This  measure 
was  carried  by  the  votes  of  the  Middle  and  Western 
states,  with  some  help  from  the  South.  The  commercial 
interests  of  New  England,  led  by  Daniel  Webster,  a 
newcomer  in  Congress,  offered  the  strongest  opposition. 
John  C.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina  was  a  supporter 
of  the  tariff.  Changing  economic  interests  later  reversed 
the  positions  of  these  two  antagonists. 

The  South  still  hoped  that  it  might  become  the  seat 
of  manufactures,  or  at  least  that  it  would  find  in  New 
England  cotton  factories  a  better  market  than  abroad; 
while  the  fear  of  foreign  competition  in  the  raising  of 
cotton  led  Southern  planters  to  desire  a  market  in  which 
they  might  hope  to  have  at  least  a  great  advantage.1 

Louisiana  was  beginning  to  produce  sugar,  and  the 
interests  of  the  producers  of  this  crop  led  her  represen¬ 
tatives  in  Congress  to  join  with  the  protectionists. 

The  decline  of  New  England  commercial  and  Southern 
tobacco  interests  was  transferring  the  center  of  power 
to  the  Middle  and  Western  states.  Pennsylvania  was 
now  becoming  the  “Keystone  state”  in  more  than  loca¬ 
tion.  Although  it  had  not  yet  obtained  the  domination 
in  manufacturing  that  it  was  later  to  possess,  it  was 
advancing  toward  that  position.  Its  most  strikingly 
strategic  position  at  this  time  was  due  to  its  possession 
of  the  principal  gateway  to  the  West.  Hostile  Indians 
still  occupied  northern  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  the  great 
highway  of  the  Hudson,  Mohawk,  and  Genesee  rivers 
was  not  being  used. 

1  Edward  Stanwood,  “American  Tariff  Controversies  in  the  Nine¬ 
teenth  Century,”  p.  106 ;  C.  K.  Babcock,  “The  Rise  of  American  Nation¬ 
ality,”  p.  160;  Niles*  Register ,  Vol.  XXVI,  p.  113. 


158  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


The  Ohio  River  was  the  main  artery  of  trade  and 
travel.  Until  after  1830  there  was  to  be  little  settle¬ 
ment  west  of  the  Alleghenies  that  was  not  dependent 
upon  this  river.  A  map  of  population  prior  to  that  time 
shows  few  important  settlements  in  that  region  border¬ 
ing  on  the  Great  Lakes  that  is  now  almost  dominant  in 
national  life.  The  principal  cities  of  the  West  were 
Cincinnati,  Marietta,  Louisville,  and  St.  Louis.  This 
trans-Allegheny  empire  had  grown  to  great  importance 
in  American  life.  Its  trade  was  determining  the  growth 
of  seaboard  states  and  cities  and  the  direction  of  future 
national  development.  Three  cities  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  were  contending  for  the  control  of  the  Western 
trade.  These  were  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and  New 
York.  The  weapons  with  which  cities  fight  for  trade 
are  usually  improved  systems  of  transportation.  At 
this  time  inland  transportation  was  by  canals  and  turn¬ 
pikes.  There  was  a  perfect  craze  for  the  construction 
of  these  forms  of  trade  highways.1  New  York  was 
planning  the  Erie  Canal.  Baltimore  had  succeeded  in 
inducing  Congress  to  undertake  the  Cumberland  Road,  a 
great  national  highway  to  pass  through  Cumberland  Gap, 
near  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  and  on  into  and  across 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.2  Philadelphia  was  developing 
a  system  of  internal  canals  with  state  help,  to  secure 
the  advantage  possessed  by  the  fact  that  the  principal 
gate  for  Western  trade  was  already  located  at  Pittsburg. 

1  For  a  description  of  the  manner  in  which  the  War  of  1812,  with  the 
Embargo  and  blockade,  had  compelled  the  development  of  inland  trans¬ 
portation,  and  especially  of  trade  by  wagons,  see  McMaster,  “History 
of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  IV,  pp.  218-221. 

2 1.  L.  Ringwalt,  “  Development  of  Transportation  Systems  in  the 
United  States,”  p.  21. 


CHANGING  INTERESTS 


159 


There  was  still  another  contestant  for  the  trade  of 
this  Western  territory.  New  Orleans,  with  all  the  ad¬ 
vantage  of  a  never  ceasing  river  current  flowing  from 
the  source  of  the  trade  past  her  doors,  was  the  natural 
outlet  for  many  of  the  products  of  this  district.  In 
1811,  by  the  launching  of  the  first  steamboat  on  Western 
waters  at  Pittsburg,  the  advantage  of  the  current  was 
largely  lost,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  Western  travel 
began  to  be  transformed.1 

One  of  the  important  sources  of  Western  wealth  during 
this  period  was  the  fur  trade.  The  American  Fur  Com¬ 
pany,  controlled  by  John  Jacob  As  tor,  was  chartered  in 
1808,  and  within  a  dozen  years  had  become  a  power 
throughout  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  and  even  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  The  explorations  of  Lewis  and  Clark  and 
Pike  opened  up  rich  fur  territory,  which  was  exploited 
until  settlement  invaded  its  sources  a  generation  later. 

Owing  to  the  difficulties  of  transportation,  there  was 
no  strong  national  feeling.  It  was  not  alone  New  Eng¬ 
land  that  threatened  to  secede.  The  Mississippi  Valley 
was  filled  with  intrigue  and  with  separatist  sentiment. 
The  ties  that  bound  the  interests  of  this  locality  with 
the  Atlantic  coast  were  few  and  tenuous,  and  were  only 
tightened  when  the  national  government  used  its  power 
to  protect  Western  interests  through  internal  improve¬ 
ments  and  a  protective  tariff,  and  later  when  the  rail¬ 
road,  steamship,  and  canal  systems  laid  a  firm  basis  for 
national  unity. 

1  L.  J.  Bishop,  “History  of  American  Manufactures,”  Vol.  II,  p.  173  ; 
Timothy  Flint,  “Condensed  Geography  and  History  of  the  Western 
States,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  228-229. 


CHAPTER  XV 


THE  FIRST  CRISIS  —  1819 

The  industrial  boom  created  by  the  Embargo,  the 
war,  western  land  speculation,  and  the  canal  and  turn- 
pike  enthusiasm,  and  fostered  by  the  tariff  of  1816  gave 
the  infant  capitalism  severe  internal  pains,  climaxing 
in  the  first  crisis  in  1819. 

There  were  as  many  explanations  of  the  cause  of  this 
crisis  as  of  any  of  the  subsequent  ones.  Senator  Thomas 
H.  Benton  was  positive  that  it  was  caused  by  the  new 
United  States  Bank,  that  had  been  chartered  in  1816.1 
Many  others  were  sure  it  was  caused  by  the  tariff  enacted 
in  the  same  year.  It  was  really  but  the  American  phase 
of  an  almost  universal  collapse  of  industry  and  finance 
following  the  readjustments  attendant  upon  the  close 
of  the  Napoleonic  wars.  Unfavorable  weather  in 
Europe  had  almost  ruined  the  crops  of  1816-1817  in 
England,  France,  and  Italy,  adding  a  catastrophe  of 
nature  to  an  industrial  collapse.2 

Within  the  United  States  the  period  immediately 
preceding  the  crisis  had  been  one  of  feverish  specula¬ 
tion.3  Although  there  was  still  a  vast  quantity  of 

1  Thomas  H.  Benton,  “Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate,” 
Introduction,  pp.  5-6 ;  William  H.  Gouge,  “A  Short  History  of  Paper 
Money  and  Banking  in  the  United  States,”  pp.  33-35. 

2  H.  De  Gibbins,  “Economic  and  Industrial  Progress  Century,”  in 
Nineteenth  Century  Series,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  108-109. 

3  Niles'  Register ,  June  12,  1819,  p.  257. 

160 


THE  FIRST  CRISIS  — 1819 


161 


“  no-rent  ”  land,1  there  had  been  a  wild  struggle  to  secure 
possession  of  western  lands,  with  all  the  attendant  phe¬ 
nomena  of  excessively  high  prices,  fraudulent  purchases 
and  manipulation  that  became  so  familiar  in  later  years.2 

The  new  manufactures  also  offered  a  favorable  ground 
for  speculation.  Joint  stock  companies,  as  corporations 
were  still  called,  had  been  organized  in  great  numbers, 
and  their  stock  floated  upon  the  first  battalion  of  that 
immense  army  of  “innocent  purchasers”  who  have  been 
absorbing  similar  issues  ever  since.  These  same  trusting 
individuals  were  given  an  opportunity  to  absorb  a  large 
quantity  of  stock  in  canal  and  turnpike  companies, 
many  of  which  went  bankrupt  during  the  ensuing  crisis. 

The  whole  situation  was  greatly  aggravated  by  a 
state  of  financial  chaos.  The  charter  of  the  first  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  the  one  championed  by  Hamilton, 
had  expired  in  1811.  At  once  a  multitude  of  private  and 
state  banks  sprung  up.  Frequently  the  principal  asset 
of  these  banks  consisted  of  a  set  of  plates  from  which 
to  print  paper  money.  This  money  was  loaned  to 


1  Warden,  “Statistical,  Political,  and  Historical  Account  of  the 
United  States”  (1819),  Introduction,  p.  xliv  :  “Rent  exists  in  a  very 
limited  degree  in  the  United  States.  .  .  .  Except  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  great  towns,  there  is  very  little  land  let  at  lease  in  the 
United  States,  the  price  being  so  low  that  any  person  who  has  the  capital 
necessary  to  enter  upon  the  business  of  farming  finds  the  purchase  money 
of  the  land  a  very  small  addition  to  his  outlay.” 

2  C.  F.  Emerick,  “  The  Credit  System  and  the  Public  Domain,”  p.  6 
et  seq.  “The  year  1814  witnessed  the  beginning  of  a  great  increase  in 
the  sales  of  public  lands.  In  that  year  864,536  acres  were  sold,  or 
245>37°  more  than  in  any  year  since  1796.  During  the  succeeding  five 
years  the  sales  assumed  vast  proportions,  in  1819  reaching  5,475,648 
acres.  These  figures  were  not  surpassed  until  1835.”  Flint,  “Geog¬ 
raphy  and  History  of  Western  States,”  pp.  348-350. 


M 


1 62  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


prospective  purchasers  of  land,  the  bank  being  secured 
by  a  mortgage  on  the  land. 

Capitalism,  scarcely  in  existence,  could  hardly  be 
expected  to  evolve  any  effective  system  of  banking.  It 
fell  back  upon  individual  initiative,  and  turned  over  the 
function  of  printing  money  to  whatever  band  of  clever 
men  might  get  together  and  secure  the  easily  obtained 
sanction  of  some  state  government.  The  Constitution 
forbids  any  state  to  “emit  bills  of  credit/’  but  by  some 
strange  twisting  of  this  phrase  it  was  held  that  the  states 
were  free  to  confer  this  right  upon  individuals.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  carnival  of  swindling 
that  followed.  Nearly  every  legislature  was  besieged 
with  applicants  for  bank  charters,  and  those  best  able 
to  influence  such  legislation  were  granted  practically 
unlimited  power  to  print  and  circulate  money. 

Any  sudden  shock  would  tumble  such  a  house  of  cards 
about  the  heads  of  its  builders.  The  shock  came  when 
the  second  Bank  of  the  United  States  sought  to  force 
the  restoration  of  specie  payments  that  had  been  sus¬ 
pended  during  the  war.  This  second  bank,  unlike  the 
first  one,  was  owned  largely  outside  of  New  England.1 
For  the  moment  the  Middle  states,  with  their  growing 
manufactures,  and  the  Southern  states,  with  a  profitable 
cotton  crop,  were  more  prosperous,  more  directly  inter¬ 
ested  in  and  favored  by  the  national  government,  and 
therefore,  more  patriotic  than  the  decaying  commercial 
states  of  New  England. 

Once  more  a  note  should  be  made  of  the  attitude  of 
three  men.  John  C.  Calhoun  of  South  Carolina  opened 

1  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  IV, 
PP*  3I3-3I4- 


THE  FIRST  CRISIS  — 1819 


163 

the  debate  in  Congress  in  support  of  the  bank.  In  this 
he  was  strongly  assisted  by  Henry  Clay  of  Kentucky, 
then  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
great  opponent  of  the  bill  was  Daniel  Webster  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts.1  Each  of  these  men  reflected  a  sectional 
economic  interest  in  this  position.  As  those  interests 
changed,  the  beliefs  and  political  principles  of  these 
men  veered  to  suit  the  changing  wind. 

The  earliest  beginnings  of  this  bank,  that  was  to  be 
such  an  important  factor  in  the  financial,  industrial, 
and  political  life  of  this  country,  were  tainted  with  fraud. 
The  provisions  for  a  paid-in  capital,  which  had  been  a 
part  of  the  law  creating  it,  were  evaded.  The  first 
subscribers  were  allowed  to  borrow  money  upon  their 
stock  with  which  to  purchase  more  stock,  and  so  on  until 
a  most  unsteady  pyramid  was  built  with  no  genuine 
assets  at  bottom.2  The  operations  of  the  bank  were 
then  manipulated  to  the  benefit  of  the  board  of  directors 
and  stockholders.  Among  the  latter,  it  was  alleged  by 
Niles,  who  was  by  no  means  an  enemy  of  the  bank, 
were  forty  members  of  Congress.3 

The  scandals  were  so  great  that  a  Congressional  com¬ 
mittee  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  bank,  and  when 
this  committee  reported,  January  16,  1819,  the  bank 
stock  fell  from  near  140  (at  which  point  it  had  been 
accepted  as  collateral  for  loans  up  to  almost  its  full 
market  value)  to  93. 4  Yet  the  report  was  largely  a 
whitewash,  and  its  main  effect  was  to  frighten  the  presi¬ 
dent  of  the  bank  into  fleeing  from  the  country.  Three 

1  McMaster,  loc  cit.,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  310-311. 

2  Wm.  H.  Gouge,  “History  of  Paper  Money  and  Banking,”  p.  27. 

8  Niles’  Register,  Feb.  27,  1819.  4  Gouge,  loc.  cit.,  p.  30. 


164  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


years  later  a  report  was  forced  from  the  institution  that 
showed  that  it  was  absolutely  bankrupt  at  the  time  of 
the  Congressional  investigation,  and  that  it  had  been 
guilty  of  nearly  all  the  acts  of  crooked  finance  that  such 
a  still  unsophisticated  age  knew.1 

Immediately  after  the  Congressional  investigation 
and  the  flight  of  the  president,  a  new  administration 
realized  that  only  the  most  drastic  steps  would  save  the 
institution  from  actually  going  through  bankruptcy 
proceedings,  with  the  probable  criminal  prosecution  of 
its  officials.  There  was  an  immediate  restriction  of 
credits,  a  sudden  demand  for  collections,  and  an  insist¬ 
ence  upon  specie  payments  from  other  banks. 

When  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  refused  to  accept 
the  notes  of  the  insolvent  state  banks,  the  latter  promptly 
failed,  their  securities  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  national 
institution,  and  the  tens  of  thousands  of  debtors  who  had 
borrowed  this  money  for  land  speculation  and  other 
purposes  had  their  property  taken  away  by  foreclosure 
of  mortgages.2 

At  once  a  great  “Populistic”  movement  swept  over 
Kentucky,  Illinois,  Tennessee,  Indiana,  and  Ohio.  The 
legislature  of  Kentucky  established  a  state  bank,  with 
little  more  than  wind  for  assets,  and  declared  war  upon 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Maryland,  Tennessee, 
Georgia,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and  Ohio,  all 
endeavored  to  tax  the  branches  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  But  John  Marshall  was  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  in  the  famous  case  of  Mc¬ 
Cullough  vs.  Maryland  the  right  of  the  state  to  tax  the 

1  Gouge,  loc.  cit.,  p.  31. 

2  F.  J.  Turner,  “Rise  of  the  New  West,”  pp.  126-127. 


THE  FIRST  CRISIS  — 1819 


*6$ 

bank  was  denied.  But  the  frontier  cared  little  for  Su¬ 
preme  Court  decisions,  and  Ohio  proceeded  to  flaunt  the 
decision  and  to  collect  the  tax  by  force  of  arms,  while 
Kentucky  withdrew  the  protection  of  state  laws  from 
the  branches  located  in  that  state.1 

The  revolt  of  the  West  was  not  surprising.  The  bank 
had  obtained  possession  through  mortgages  of  vast 
tracts  of  land,  both  urban  and  rural.  The  suffering 
everywhere  was  intense. 

Thomas  H.  Benton  introduces  his  “  Thirty  Years’ 
View”  with  this  striking  description  of  the  situation  in 
1820 :  — 

“  The  years  1819  and  1820  were  a  period  of  gloom  and 
agony.  No  money,  either  gold  or  silver :  no  paper 
convertible  into  specie :  no  measure  or  standard  of 
value  left  remaining.  The  local  banks  (all  but  those  of 
New  England),  after  a  brief  resumption  of  specie  pay¬ 
ments,  again  sank  into  a  state  of  suspension.  The  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  created  as  a  remedy  for  all  these 
evils,  now  at  the  head  of  the  evil,  prostrate  and  helpless, 
with  no  power  left  but  that  of  suing  its  debtors,  and 
selling  their  property,  and  purchasing  it  for  itself  at  its 
own  nominal  price.  No  price  for  property  or  produce. 
No  sales  but  those  of  the  sheriff  or  marshal.  No  pur¬ 
chasers  at  the  execution  sales  but  the  creditor  or  some 
hoarder  of  money.  No  employment  for  industry  — 
no  demand  for  labor  —  no  sale  for  the  produce  of  the 
farm  —  no  sound  of  the  hammer  but  that  of  the  auc¬ 
tioneer  knocking  down  property.  Stop  laws  —  property 

1  Frederick  J.  Turner,  “The  Rise  of  the  New  West,”  pp.  136-140, 
300;  J.  B.  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,” 
Vol.  IV,  pp.  484-510;  Horace  White,  “Money  and  Banking,”  p.  285. 


166  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


laws  —  replevin  laws  —  stay  laws  —  loan  office  laws  — « 
the  intervention  of  the  legislator  between  the  creditor 
and  debtor :  this  was  the  business  of  legislation  in  three- 
fourths  of  the  states  of  the  Union  —  of  all  South  and 
West  of  New  England.  No  medium  of  exchange  but 
depreciated  paper:  no  change  even,  but  little  bits  of 
foul  paper,  marked  so  many  cents  and  signed  by  some 
tradesman,  barber,  or  inn-keeper:  exchanges  deranged 
to  the  extent  of  fifty  or  one  hundred  per  cent.  Dis¬ 
tress  the  universal  cry  of  the  people:  Relief  the 
universal  demand  thundered  at  the  doors  of  all  legis¬ 
latures,  State  or  Federal.”  1 

This  process  of  wholesale  exploitation  by  the  bank 
was  one  of  the  steps  by  which  the  capital  necessary  to 
the  establishment  of  the  factory  system  was  gathered 
from  the  multitude  of  small  producers  and  brought 
together  in  the  large  sums  needed  for  the  introduction 
of  this  new  industrial  stage. 

In  August,  1819,  Niles’  Register  said,  “  There  are 
20,000  persons  daily  seeking  work  in  Philadelphia  —  in 
New  York  10,000  able-bodied  men  are  said  to  be  wander¬ 
ing  the  streets  looking  for  it,  and  if  we  add  to  them  the 
women  who  desire  something  to  do,  the  amount  cannot 
be  less  than  20,000  —  in  Baltimore  there  may  be  about 
10,000  persons  in  unsteady  employment,  or  actually 
suffering  because  they  cannot  get  into  business.” 

This  panic  seems  to  have  marked  the  beginning  of 
regular  relief  by  charitable  bodies.  There  had  been 
plenty  of  misery  before,  but  the  whole  population  had 
been  so  closely  knit  together  that  charitable  societies 

1  Thomas  H.  Benton,  “Thirty  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate,” 


THE  FIRST  CRISIS  — 1819 


167 


were  seldom  needed.  In  1815  Henry  Niles,  the  editor 
and  publisher  of  Niles 1  Register ,  estimated  that  there 
was  one  pauper  for  every  250  persons.  He  also  states 
that  no  provision  was  made  for  any  save  for  those  who 
were  disabled  physically,  except  during  a  short  time  in 
the  winter.1  During  the  winter  of  1819-1820  soup- 
houses  were  established  in  several  of  the  larger  cities. 
A  little  later  a  committee  was  appointed  to  investigate 
the  public  charities  of  Philadelphia,  and  its  report  reveals 
a  mass  of  misery  among  the  workers  that  foretells  the 
city  slum  of  to-day. 

While  the  national  government  was  being  used  to 
collect  the  last  farthing  from  the  little  farmers  and  half 
starving  wageworkers,  the  same  forces  that  were  utiliz¬ 
ing  that  government  for  debt-collecting  purposes  were 
developing  a  bankruptcy  code  that  should  free  the 
merchant,  banker,  manufacturer,  and  planter  from  such 
of  his  debts  as  he  was  unable  to  pay.  The  governors 
of  Louisiana  and  Rhode  Island  urged  the  enactment  of 
bankruptcy  legislation  in  their  annual  messages  in  1816. 
Several  states  already  had  enacted  such  laws,  although 
the  national  government  had  repealed  the  one  enacted 
in  1800,  after  an  existence  of  only  three  years.  These 
laws  were  quickly  taken  advantage  of,  and  Niles  in  1819 
remarks  that  “Twenty  or  thirty  years  ago  if  a  man  failed 
for  $100,000,  people  talked  about  it  as  something  marvel¬ 
ous.  But  now,”  he  adds,  “it  is  not  considered  decent 
for  a  man  to  break  for  less  than  $100,000,  and  if  a  per¬ 
son  would  be  thought  a  respectable  bankrupt ,  he  ought  to 
owe  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  more.” 

A  New  York  judge  before  whom  some  of  these  bank- 

1  Niles *  Register ,  IX,  p.  232. 


1 68  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


ruptcy  cases  were  brought  expressed  himself  as  horrified 
that  people  “from  the  class  of  society”  that  composed 
the  bankrupts  could  commit  such  crimes.  He  added 
that  he  had  “witnessed  displays  of  depravity  on  the 
part  of  the  agents  of  moneyed  institutions  of  the  most 
appalling  character.”  1 

The  pressure  of  the  panic  created  criminals  at  both 
ends  of  the  social  scale.  A  “Bank  Director,”  writing  to 
the  London  Courier  for  May  n,  1820,  states  that: 
“Mail  robberies  and  piracies  are  quite  the  order  of  the 
day.  Two  men  were  hung  at  Baltimore  a  few  months 
ago  for  robbing  the  mail :  two  more  will  experience  the 
same  fate  in  a  few  days  at  the  same  place  for  the  same 
crime.  Two  men  are  to  be  hung  there  a  week  hence 
for  piracy,  and  five  others  are  under  sentence  of  death.”  2 

The  reorganization  following  the  panic  accelerated  the 
industrial  tendencies  and  social  readjustments  already 
noted.  By  1828  manufacturing  had  so  dominated  over 
commerce  in  Massachusetts  that  Webster  announced 
that  since  the  interests  of  his  constituents  had  become 
bound  up  with  protection,  he  had  changed  his  mind  and 
would  now  support  the  tariff. 

The  whole  set  of  social  institutions  changed  to  adjust 
themselves  to  this  new  industrial  base.  The  old  Federal¬ 
ist  party  died  out  in  New  England,  once  its  stronghold.3 
The  religious  reflex  of  the  decline  of  commerce  and  the 
rise  of  manufactures  was  so  like  the  religious  movement 
that  accompanied  the  rise  of  capitalism  in  Europe  that 
it  has  been  designated  as  “The  New  England  Reforma- 

1  Gouge,  loc.  cit.,  p.  51.  2  Ibid.,  p.  36. 

3  Turner,  “Rise  of  the  New  West,”  pp.  16-20;  Ostrogorski,  “Democ¬ 
racy  and  the  Organization  of  Political  Parties,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  26-27. 


THE  FIRST  CRISIS  — 1819 


169 


tion.”  The  orthodox  clergy  that  had  so  long  actively 
participated  in  the  rulership  of  society  were  disturbed 
by  the  rise  of  new  sects.  In  the  very  stronghold  of 
Puritanism,  the  old  orthodoxy  was  attacked  and  over¬ 
thrown  by  the  most  liberal  of  creeds,  —  Unitarianism. 
The  Congregational  clergy,  long  a  part  of  the  ruling 
hierarchy,  was  split  into  warring  sects.  William  E. 
Channing  wrote  his  famous  letter  in  defense  of  Uni¬ 
tarianism  to  the  Rev.  Samuel  Thatcher  in  1815.  By 
the  time  the  lines  were  clearly  drawn  it  was  discovered 
that  the  new  religious  forces  had  captured  Harvard  Col¬ 
lege.  There  was  also  a  division  of  a  similar  character 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Quakers,  and  numerous  peculiar  and 
separatist  sects  rose  throughout  the  West.1 

A  national  and  independent  industrial  life  could  not  but 
have  its  expression  in  the  beginning  of  a  national  litera¬ 
ture.  Washington  Irving,  really  the  first  American 
author  of  any  importance,  wrote  his  “  Knickerbocker’s 
History  of  New  York”  in  1809,  and  his  next,  and  much 
more  important  work,  the  “Sketch  Book,”  in  1819. 
Emerson  was  graduated  from  Harvard  in  1821,  the  same 
year  that  James  Fenimore  Cooper  published  “The 
Spy.”  The  N orth  American  Review  was  founded  in  1815, 
and  published  “Thanatopsis,”  by  William  Cullen  Bryant, 
the  next  year.2 

1  W.  B.  Cairns,  “The  Development  of  American  Literature  from 
1815  to  1833,”  Bulletin  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  pp.  8-9. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  25. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKERS  IN  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF 

CAPITALISM 

Social  evolution  in  America  has  always  moved  with 
accelerated  speed,  and  frequently  with  syncopated  meas¬ 
ure  as  compared  with  its  typical  form  in  western  Eu¬ 
rope.  These  features  were  especially  noticeable  in  the 
introduction  of  the  factory  system.  In  England  the 
progress  of  industry  was  from  the  “ household”  stage, 
in  which  each  family  produced  for  its  own  consumption, 
to  the  “ domestic”  stage,  where  the  family  was  still  the 
productive  unit  and  the  home  the  only  factory,  but 
where  production  was  for  the  market. 

The  “ domestic”  stage  was  never  general  in  the 
United  States.  The  transition  was  almost  direct  from 
the  “ household”  to  the  factory  system. 

In  still  another  direction  American  development  dis¬ 
plays  its  accelerated  tempo.  In  the  first  stage  of  the 
factory  system  in  the  English  cotton  trade,  only  the 
spinning  was  done  by  machinery.  Weaving  was  still 
done  in  the  homes,  even  at  the  time  the  factory  system 
was  gaining  a  foothold  in  the  United  States.  This 
transitional  stage,  combining  the  old  and  the  new,  never 
existed  here.  The  first  establishment  in  the  world  to 
apply  the  factory  system  to  the  entire  process  of  manu¬ 
facturing  cotton  cloth,  and  to  perform  all  the  processes 
by  machinery  under  one  roof,  was  the  factory  erected 

170 


CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKERS 


171 

by  Francis  C.  Lowell  at  Waltham,  Massachusetts,  in 

1815.1 

There  was  a  lack  of  hampering  tradition  in  the  work¬ 
ing  out  of  the  factory  system  on  this  side  the  Atlantic. 
Steam  power  was  early  made  use  of,  although  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  water  power  in  locating  the  early  cotton  fac¬ 
tories  in  New  England  should  not  be  overlooked.  Im¬ 
provements  in  the  application  of  steam  began  to  be 
made  by  American  inventors  about  this  time,  indicating 
that  industry  in  this  country  was  henceforth  to  have  an 
independent  evolution.2 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  factory  system  in 
America,  it  was  based  upon  the  existence  of  a  body  of 
propertyless  wageworkers.  By  1820  there  was  a  large 

1  C.  D.  Wright,  “Industrial  Evolution  in  the  United  States,”  p.  13 1. 

2  In  1816,  Oliver  Evans  appeals  to  Congress  for  an  extension  of  his 
patents  on  steam  engines,  and  makes  this  remarkable  and  prophetic 
plea :  “What  will  the  annual  amount  of  the  benefits  be  when  my  Colum¬ 
bian  engines  shall  be  applied  to  work  many  thousands  of  mills,  manu¬ 
factories,  carriages  on  railways  or  smooth  roads,  boats  on  the  great 
Atlantic  and  Western  waters,  raising  the  value  of  western  lands  50  per 
cent,  by  lessening  the  time  of  going  to  market,  tantamount  to  shorten¬ 
ing  the  distance :  can  any  one  calculate  within  one  million  of  dollars?” 
A  writer  in  Niles'  Register  for  the  same  year  (p.  219),  commenting  on  an 
engine  by  David  Heath,  Jr.,  of  New  Jersey  says:  “An  engine  of  four 
horse  power,  charged  with  fuel,  may  be  comprised  in  the  space  appointed 
to  the  baggage  of  a  stage,  and  may  be  lifted  on  and  off  the  carriage  with 
greatest  ease;  which  carriage  he  can  drive  by  experiment  at  the  rate 
of  fifteen  miles  an  hour  on  the  bare  road,  without  the  use  of  railways, 
being  regulated  to  ascend  and  descend  hills  with  uniform  velocity  and 
the  greatest  safety.”  On  the  same  page  with  this  remarkable  descrip¬ 
tion  is  to  be  found  an  item  telling  of  a  marvelous  rotary  engine  said  to 
be  “in  operation  in  Messrs.  A.  &  N.  Brown’s  saw-mill,  at  Manhattan 
Island.”  The  large  number  of  such  items  appearing  at  this  time  in  a 
single  periodical  is  indicative  of  the  great  interest  in  mechanical  progress 
and  the  inventive  activity  of  the  country. 


172 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


class  of  wage  laborers  employed  in  weaving,  shipbuilding, 
shoemaking,  iron  and  steel  making,  printing,  rope  and 
sail  manufacturing,  the  building  trades,  and  the  con¬ 
struction  of  turnpikes  and  canals. 

The  misery  of  early  English  factory  workers  has 
become  the  classic  illustration  of  vicarious  suffering  in 
the  cause  of  social  evolution.  The  similar  sufferings  of 

American  workers  at  the  same  stage  are  less  familiar. 

/ 

In  both  countries  the  cradle  and  the  home  were  robbed 
to  secure  victims  for  the  natal  sacrifice  of  newborn 
capitalism. 

A  member  from  New  York  expressed  his  gratification 
upon  the  floor  of  Congress  in  1816  that  “Arkwright’s 
machinery  has  produced  a  revolution  in  the  manufac¬ 
ture  of  cotton;  the  invention  is  so  excellent,  the  effect 
in  saving  labor  so  immense,  that  five  or  six  men  are 
sufficient  for  the  management  of  a  factory  of  2000 
spindles,  spinning  100,000  pounds  of  twist  yarn  yearly; 
the  other  hands  are  mere  children,  whose  labor  is  of 
little  use  in  any  other  branch  of  industry.”  1 

A  Congressional  committee  in  the  same  year  estimated 
that  of  the  100,000  persons  then  employed  in  the  cloth 
industry,  only  10,000  were  men,  while  66,000  were 
“women  and  female  children,”  and  23,000  were  boys. 
Matthew  Carey  waxes  enthusiastic  over  the  opportuni¬ 
ties  the  factory  owners  offered  to  young  girls.  Of  one 
neighborhood  he  tells  us  that  the  girls  were  “before  the 
establishment  of  the  factory  in  a  state  of  idleness,  bare¬ 
footed  and  living  in  wretched  hovels.  But  since  that 
period  they  are  comfortably  fed  and  clothed  —  their 
habits  and  manners  and  dwellings  greatly  improved  — 

1  Benton’s  “Abridgements  of  the  Debates  of  Congress,”  Vol.  V,  p.  638. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKERS  173 

and  they  have  become  useful  members  of  society.  .  .  . 
Judging  from  the  state  of  other  establishments,  it  is 
fair  to  presume  that  more  than  half  of  the  whole  num¬ 
ber  were  probably  young  females  who,  but  for  the  fac¬ 
tory,  would  have  been  without  employment,  and  spend¬ 
ing  their  time  perniciously  —  a  burden  to  their  parents 
and  society  —  trained  up  to  vicious  courses  —  but  thus 
happily  preserved  from  idleness  and  its  attendant  vices 
and  crimes  —  and  whose  wages  probably  average  $1.50 
a  week.”  1 

A  committee  that  investigated  the  manufactures  of 
Philadelphia  prepared  a  table  showing  the  wages  paid 
for  various  classes  of  work.  These  varied  from  $11.54 
a  week  for  the  highest  paid  workers,  who  were  engaged 
in  making  iron  castings,  to  those  who  received  but  $2.70 
a  week  for  paper  hanging  and  the  making  of  playing 
cards.2 

There  is  perhaps  no  better  summary  of  the  general 
conditions  of  the  workers  of  this  period  than  that  given 
by  Matthew  Carey  in  his  essay  on  “The  Public  Chari¬ 
ties  of  Philadelphia,”  in  which  he  says:  — 

“Thousands  of  our  laboring  people  travel  hundreds 
of  miles  in  quest  of  employment  on  canals  at  62^,  75, 
and  87!  cents  per  day,  paying  $1.50  to  $2  a  week  for 
board,  leaving  families  behind,  depending  upon  them  for 
support.  They  labor  frequently  in  marshy  grounds, 
where  they  inhale  pestiferous  miasmata,  which  destroy 
their  health,  often  irrecoverably.  They  return  to  their 
poor  families  broken-hearted,  and  with  ruined  constitu- 

1  Matthew  Carey,  “Essays  on  Political  Economy,”  Address  to  the 
Farmers  of  the  United  States,  pp.  458-459. 

2  Niles’  Register,  Oct.  23,  1819,  p.  117. 


/ 


174  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

tions,  with  a  sorry  pittance,  most  laboriously  earned, 
and  take  to  their  beds  sick  and  unable  to  work.  Hun¬ 
dreds  are  swept  off  annually,  many  of  them  leaving 
numerous  and  helpless  families.  Notwithstanding  their 
wretched  fate,  their  places  are  quickly  supplied  by 
others,  although  death  stares  them  in  the  face.  Hun¬ 
dreds  are  most  laboriously  employed  on  turnpikes, 
working  from  morning  to  night  at  from  half  a  dollar  to 
three-quarters  a  day,  exposed  to  the  broiling  sun  in 
summer,  and  all  the  inclemency  of  our  severe  winters. 
There  is  always  a  redundancy  of  wood-pilers  in  our  cities, 
whose  wages  are  so  low  that  their  utmost  efforts  do  not 
enable  them  to  earn  more  than  thirty-five  to  fifty  cents 
per  day.  .  .  .  Finally,  there  is  no  employment  what¬ 
ever,  how  disagreeable  or  loathsome  or  deleterious  so¬ 
ever  it  may  be,  or  however  reduced  the  wages,  that  does 
not  find  persons  willing  to  follow  it  rather  than  beg  or 
steal.” 

As  is  always  the  case,  the  minimum  of  wages  was  ac¬ 
companied  by  the  maximum  of  hours.  From  the  regu¬ 
lations  of  a  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  mill  we  learn  that 
their  rules  required  “the  women  and  children  to  be  at 
their  work  at  half-past  four  in  the  morning.  They 
are  allowed  half  an  hour  for  breakfast  and  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  for  dinner,  and  then  work  as  long 
as  they  can  see.”  1 

The  spokesmen  of  the  ruling  class  at  this  time  were 

1  Seth  Luther,  “Address  to  the  Workingmen  of  New  England  ”  (1836), 
pp.  42-43.  Further  information  on  the  condition  of  labor  at  this  time 
will  be  found  in  McMaster,  “A  Century  of  Social  Betterment,”  in  the 
•  Atlantic  Monthly ,  Vol.  LXXIX,  p.  22;  “  History  of  the  People  of  the 
United  States,”  Vol.  V,  p.  121 ;  Michael  Chevalier,  “The  United  States,” 
PP-  137— 144 ;  Niles*  Register,  May  8,  1819,  Oct.  5,  1816,  Dec.  2,  1815. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKERS 


175 


continually  complaining  that  wages  were  “too  high.” 
The  defenders  of  a  protective  tariff  insisted  that  manu¬ 
factures  could  not  exist  with  such  high  wages  without 
protection.  The  opponents  of  the  tariff  declared  that 
these  unreasonably  high  wages  would  always  make 
manufacturing  impossible,  and  that  their  existence  was 
an  insuperable  obstacle  to  factories.  Both  sides  agreed 
that  wages  were  too  high.  President  Monroe,  in  one  of 
his  annual  messages,  congratulated  the  manufacturers 
on  the  “fall  in  the  price  of  labor,  apparently  so  favor¬ 
able  to  the  success  of  domestic  manufactures.” 

Perhaps  public  officials  would  not  have  been  so  frank 
to  approve  of  low  wages  had  the  working  class  not  been 
politically  helpless.  There  was  some  sort  of  property 
qualification  for  voting  in  every  state,  and  a  still  higher 
test  for  office  holding.  The  governor  of  Massachusetts 
was  required  to  be  “a  Christian  worth  £1000,”  while 
he  who  would  aspire  to  the  governorship  of  Georgia 
must  be  the  possessor  of  500  acres  of  land  and  £4000. 

Indirect  voting  was  the  rule.  Governors  were  com¬ 
monly  elected  by  the  legislatures.  Presidential  candi¬ 
dates  were  selected  by  Congressional  caucuses,  com¬ 
posed  of  the  members  of  Congress  of  each  political  party. 
The  presidential  electors  were  then  chosen  by  the  legis¬ 
latures,  and  a  property  qualification  was  generally  re¬ 
quired  of  voters  for  members  of  the  legislatures. 

There  was  a  nominal,  universal,  compulsory  military 
service,  with  a  farcical  “training  day”  when  every  able- 
bodied  man  was  required  to  report  for  drill  under  the 
direction  of  a  petty  popinjay  with  shoulder  straps. 

There  is  much  complaint  of  class  legislation  and  ad¬ 
ministration  of  justice  to-day,  but  we  have  traveled  a 


176  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


long  way  from  the  state  of  things  in  the  early  twenties. 
The  laborer  had  no  lien  upon  his  product,  and,  in  con¬ 
sequence,  was  frequently  defrauded  of  his  meager  wages. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  could  be  robbed  of  his  utmost 
farthing  by  a  creditor,  as  the  principle  of  exemption  of 
a  certain  minimum  of  wages  and  property  from  seizure 
for  debts  had  not  yet  been  established. 

It  was  not  alone  that  the  debtor  with  too  little  property 
to  secure  the  benefit  of  the  newly  enacted  bankruptcy 
law  could  be  stripped  of  every  possession.  If  these 
failed  to  satisfy  the  debt,  his  person  could  be  seized. 
The  laborer  who  was  thus  unable  either  to  discharge  his 
debt  or  to  secure  relief  through  bankruptcy  was  subject 
to  imprisonment.  No  matter  how  small  the  sum,  he 
was  sentenced  to  remain  in  jail  until  the  debt  was  paid. 
Since  the  imprisonment  effectually  prevented  the  earn¬ 
ing  of  any  money  with  which  to  meet  his  obligations, 
it  was  no  very  infrequent  thing  for  a  man  to  be  im¬ 
prisoned  for  years  or  even  for  life  because  of  a  debt  of 
a  few  shillings.  Once  in  jail,  the  state  made  no  pro¬ 
vision  for  his  food,  clothing,  or  fuel. 

The  report  of  the  Prison  Discipline  Society  for  1829 
estimated  that  more  than  75,000  were  imprisoned  for 
debt  annually  in  the  United  States,  and  that  of  these 
more  than  one  half  owed  less  than  twenty  dollars. 
Owing  to  the  lack  of  any  public  provision  for  the  most 
essential  needs,  the  debtors’  prisons  became  veritable 
chambers  of  horrors.  There  was  no  distinction  made  as 
to  sex,  age,  or  character.  All  were  driven  together  into 
a  common  room.  Even  as  far  north  as  New  York 
there  was  not  always  a  shelter  from  the  elements.  With 
what  appears  to  us  now  as  grim  irony,  charitable  societies 


CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKERS 


177 


were  formed,  not  to  abolish  imprisonment  for  debt,  or 
to  pay  the  debts  and  secure  the  liberty  of  the  victims, 
but  to  furnish  sufficient  food,  clothing,  and  fuel  to  pro¬ 
long  the  agony  of  the  suffering  prisoners. 

The  educational  facilities  of  the  United  States  were 
at  their  very  lowest  ebb  in  the  years  from  1814  to  1828. 1 
The  old  social  order  had  lost  its  strength.  The  new  one 
had  not  had  the  time  to  develop  an  educational  expres¬ 
sion.  The  most  efficient  schools  were  the  private  acade¬ 
mies  of  New  England.  The  public  schools,  the  only 
ones  accessible  to  the  wageworkers,  were  less  efficient 
than  at  any  period  before  or  since.  The  management 
of  the  schools  had  been  subdivided  in  response  to  the 
individualistic,  competitive,  separatist  spirit  of  early 
capitalism  until  the  little  school  districts  were  almost 
autonomous.2  Religious  education  had  declined  with 
the  overthrow  of  the  theocracy,  and  the  multitude  of 
seceding  sects  had  not  yet  built  up  educational  institu¬ 
tions.  Massachusetts,  then,  as  throughout  American 
history,  at  the  head  in  educational  matters,  was  expend¬ 
ing  but  $2.75  per  pupil  annually  in  education.  She 
spends  more  than  ten  times  as  much  to-day,  and  the 
poorest  equipped  Southern  state,  where  educational  facili¬ 
ties  are  least,  does  more  than  did  the  Old  Bay  State  at 
the  close  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  last  century.3 

The  great  outlet  for  such  of  the  workers  as  were 
crushed  beyond  endurance  as  wage  earners  was  the 
pioneer  life  in  the  Ohio  Valley.  Without  the  existence 

1  Edwin  G.  Dexter,  “History  of  Education  in  the  United  States,” 
pp.  97-98 ;  Frank  T.  Carlton,  “  Economic  Influences  upon  Educational 
Progress  in  the  United  States,”  Bulletin  Univ.  of  Wisconsin,  pp.  22-28. 

2  Carlton,  loc.  cit.,  p.  20.  *  Dexter,  loc.  cit.,  p.  98. 

N 


/ 


178  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  this  “free  land,”  the  condition  of  labor  would  have 
been  far  worse.  This  fact  was  noted  by  all  European 
observers.  Michael  Chevalier,  who  was  sent  to  this 
country  in  1834  by  Thiers,  then  Minister  of  the  Interior 
of  France,  makes  this  comparison  between  America  and 
Europe : 1  — 

“While  the  Americans  have  the  vast  domain  of  the 
West,  a  common  fund  from  which,  by  industry,  each 
may  draw  for  himself  and  by  himself  an  ample  heritage 
an  extreme  fall  of  wages  is  not  to  be  apprehended.  .  .  . 
In  Europe  a  coalition  of  workmen  can  only  signify  one 
of  these  two  things :  raise  our  wages  or  we  shall  die  of 
hunger  with  our  wives  and  children,  which  is  an  absurdity; 
or  raise  our  wages,  if  you  do  not,  we  shall  take  up  arms, 
which  is  civil  war.  In  Europe  there  is  no  other  possible 
construction  to  be  placed  upon  it.  But  in  America,  on 
the  contrary,  such  a  coalition  means,  raise  our  wages  or 
we  go  to  the  West.” 

Out  of  this  West  a  democratic  breeze  was  blowing, 
that  was  to  grow  into  a  small  storm  before  the  end  of 
the  thirties.  The  equality  of  the  pioneer  struggle  against 
the  wilderness  was  finding  expression  in  political  democ¬ 
racy.  The  new  states  were  coming  into  the  Union  on  a 
basis  of  universal  manhood  suffrage.  But  not  all  of  the 
workers  who  felt  the  goad  of  oppression  were  being  driven 
to  the  West.  Some  were  inclined  to  turn  and  fight 
that  oppression.  That  fight  was  to  introduce  a  new 
force  into  those  that  formulate  American  institutions. 
It  was  to  give  rise  to  the  first  real  American  labor  move¬ 
ment. 

1  Michael  Chevalier,  “The  United  States,”  p.  144. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


THE  FIRST  LABOR  MOVEMENT  —  1824-1836 

The  introduction  of  even  the  beginnings  of  the  factory 
system,  displacing  craftsmen  and  tools  by  the  wage¬ 
worker  and  the  machine,  and  the  consequent  gathering 
of  large  bodies  of  workers  dealing  with  a  single  employer 
—  in  short,  the  rise  of  an  exploited  proletariat  —  was 
certain  to  create  organized  resistance  to  exploitation  by 
that  proletariat.  There  had  been  loose  associations  of 
workingmen  for  many  years  who  sometimes  “  walked 
out”  to  secure  better  conditions.  Such  a  “ walk-out” 
had  taken  place  among  journeymen  bakers  in  New  York 
in  1741.  It  was  not  until  1825,  however,  that  labor 
unions  were  generally  established  throughout  the  north¬ 
eastern  portion  of  the  United  States.  By  1833  we  find 
the  following  trades  participating  in  a  parade  organized 
by  the  “ Central  Trade  Union”  of  New  York  City: 
“Typographical  Union,  Journeymen  House  Carpenters, 
Book  Binders,  Leather  Dressers,  Coopers,  Carvers  and 
Gilders,  Bakers,  Cabinet  Makers,  Cordwainers  (men), 
Cordwainers  (women),  Tailors,  Silk  Hatters,  Stone  Cut¬ 
ters,  Tin-Plate  and  Sheet  Iron  Workers,  Type  Founders, 
Hat  Finishers,  Willow-Basket  Makers,  Chair  Makers  and 
Gilders,  Sail  Makers,  and  Block  and  Pump  Makers.” 

Sixteen  unions  joined  to  found  the  “  General  Trade 
Union”  of  Boston  in  1834.  In  this  same  year  a  writer 
in  The  Workingman’s  Advocate  of  New  York  esti- 

179 


/ 


l8o  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

mated  the  number  of  members  in  the  labor  unions  of 
New  York,  Brooklyn,  Boston,  Baltimore,  Washington, 
and  Newark  at  26,250,  an  exceedingly  high  proportion 
of  the  number  of  wage-earners  in  those  cities. 

The  first  trade  union  journal  in  the  world  was  the 
Mechanics'  Free  Press ,  published  in  Philadelphia  from 
1828  to  1831,  antedating  by  two  years  any  similar  Eng¬ 
lish  periodical.  There  is  also  a  dispute  as  to  whether  the 
first  genuine  trade  union  existed  in  this  country  or  in 
England.1  It  is  certain  that  the  movement  under  dis¬ 
cussion  was  taking  place  at  the  same  time  as  the  first 
important  union  movement  in  Great  Britain,  and  that 
it  is  impossible  for  either  country  to  claim  either  the 
blame  or  the  credit  for  having  originated  this  inevitable 
spontaneous  resistance  of  Labor. 

Between  seventy-five  and  one  hundred  periodicals 
devoted  to  Labor  appeared  in  the  northeastern  states 
about  this  time,  a  number  scarcely  exceeded  in  the 
same  territory  three  quarters  of  a  century  later.  Two 
daily  papers,  The  Man  and  The  Daily  Sentinel ,  were 
maintained  during  a  part  of  this  period  to  present  the 
cause  of  the  workers.  Considering  the  restricted  num¬ 
bers  of  the  wageworkers,  the  undeveloped  stage  of 
printing  and  paper  manufacture,  and  consequent  diffi¬ 
culties  in  the  road  of  periodical  publication,  this  record 
is  seen  to  be  little  short  of  marvelous. 

These  unions  had  benefit  funds  for  the  sick  and  out  of 
work  and  those  on  strike.  They  had  their  union  scales, 
and  conducted  strikes  and  declared  boycotts  to  main¬ 
tain  them,  and  signed  contracts  with  the  employers  when 

1  “  Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  Society,”  Vol.  V, 
pp.  21-22. 


THE  FIRST  LABOR  MOVEMENT— 1824-1836  181 


victorious.  They  had  their  pickets  who  were  accused 
of  “  slugging  scabs  ” ;  and  in  some  cases  at  least  the  “  union 
shop”  was  demanded  and  secured.  Wages  were  in¬ 
creased  in  many  trades,  and  the  condition  of  Labor  was 
bettered  in  many  ways.  Their  most  general  demand  on 
the  economic  field  was  for  the  ten-hour  day,  to  secure 
which  many  strikes  were  conducted.  They  succeeded 
in  securing  this  standard  in  a  large  number  of  trades;  and 
finally,  as  a  result  of  their  agitation,  President  Van  Buren 
announced  the  introduction  of  the  ten-hour  day  in  all 
government  work. 

Every  economic  movement  has  some  sort  of  a  political 
expression.  This  early  labor  movement  was  no  excep¬ 
tion.  Workingmen’s  tickets  were  placed  in  nomination 
in  New  York,  Rochester,  Philadelphia,  and  several 
smaller  cities,  and  a  number  of  minor  offices  were  cap¬ 
tured.  Legislative  nominations  were  made  in  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania.  In  the  former  state  Ebenezer  Ford 
was  elected  to  the  Assembly  upon  the  Workingman’s 
ticket  in  1829,  polling  a  vote  of  6166. 

It  is  when  we  study  the  programs,  platforms,  and  prin¬ 
ciples  of  this  early  labor  movement  and  its  political  ex¬ 
pression  that  its  real  importance  as  a  factor  in  the  evolu¬ 
tion  of  American  society  appears.  The  things  for  which 
it  fought,  and  many  of  which  it  secured  directly,  are  just 
the  features  of  our  society  of  which  Americans  are  most 
inclined  to  boast. 

The  one  dominant  feature  of  every  section  of  this 
labor  movement  was  the  almost  fanatical  insistence  upon 
the  paramount  importance  of  education.  In  political 
platforms,  in  resolutions  of  public  meetings,  and  in  the 
labor  press  the  statement  is  repeated  over  and  over,  that 


182  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


the  fundamental  demand  of  Labor  is  for  an  adequate 
system  of  education. 

A  workingmen’s  meeting  held  in  New  York,  March 
20,  1830,  adopted  this  resolution:  — 

44  Resolved,  that  next  to  life  and  liberty  we  consider 
education  the  greatest  blessing  bestowed  upon  mankind. 

44  Resolved,  that  the  public  funds  should  be  appro¬ 
priated  to  the  purpose  of  education,  upon  a  regular 
system,  that  shall  ensure  the  opportunity  to  every  in¬ 
dividual  of  obtaining  a  competent  education  before  he 
shall  have  arrived  at  the  age  of  maturity.”  1 

A  writer  in  the  Mechanics’  Free  Press  of  Philadel¬ 
phia,  August  12,  1829,  in  reply  to  the  question,  “What 
do  the  workingmen  expect  ?  what  do  they  wish  ?”  said  : 
44 1  have  attended  their  late  meetings  in  the  city  generally, 
and  obtained  the  sentiments  of  a  number  of  such  as  take 
an  active  part  in  their  business,  and  find  the  great  and 
primary  object  to  be,  a  general  system  of  education  on 
an  independent  principle.”  The  Pennsylvania  system 
of  education  was  particularly  pernicious.  It  provided 
free  schools  only  for  those  who  were  willing  to  declare 
themselves  paupers.  The  rich  sent  their  children  to 
private  institutions.  There  was  no  provision  whatever 
for  the  children  of  those  who  were  neither  paupers  nor 
wealthy.2 

Again  and  again  this  cry  for  education  is  reiterated.3 
Nor  were  the  workers  content  with  merely  protesting  and 

1  Free  Enquirer ,  Mar.  20,  1830. 

2  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  V, 
pp.  360-362. 

3  Free  Enquirer ,  Feb.  4,  1829;  Aug.  12,  1829;  Sept.  30,  1829  ;  Farm¬ 
ers',  Mechanics'  and  Workingmen's  Advocate ,  Apr.  3,  1830;  Mechanics' 
Free  Press,  Sept.  19,  1829. 


THE  FIRST  LABOR  MOVEMENT  — 1824-1836  183 


resoluting.  They  were  far  in  advance  of  their  age  in  their 
knowledge  of  educational  methods.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  documents  of  this  time  is  a  report  prepared 
by  a  committee  of  Philadelphia  workingmen  who  were 
appointed  to  study  the  educational  situation.1  This 
report  is  not  only  an  extremely  keen  and  scholarly  criti¬ 
cism  of  the  existing  system,  but  outlines  a  scheme  of 
education,  embracing  kindergartens,  and  a  combination 
of  manual  training  with  education.  They  support  their 
arguments  for  such  a  system  by  illustrations  drawn 
from  similar  educational  establishments  in  Switzerland, 
France,  Prussia,  and  Great  Britain. 

There  were  undoubtedly  other  influences  making  for 
education  at  this  time.  The  factory  system  requires  a 
certain  amount  of  trained  intelligence  for  its  operatives, 
and  has  always  been  accompanied  by  some  form  of  popu¬ 
lar  education.  Yet  when  this  period  is  examined  in 
detail  there  is  no  other  single  force  making  for  education 
that  can  be  compared  with  the  working-class  movement, 
and  there  is  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  to  this 
movement,  more  than  to  any  other  single  cause,  if  not 
more  than  to  all  other  causes  combined,  is  due  the  com¬ 
mon  school  system  of  the  United  States. 

In  all  directions  this  movement  was  laying  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  democratic  institutions.  The  far-sightedness 
and  comprehensively  progressive  character  of  its  pro¬ 
gram  is  remarkable.  The  chairman  of  a  convention  of 
workingmen  held  in  Boston  in  1833  gives  the  following 
summary  of  the  measures  advocated:  — 

“The  operatives  and  producers  are  generally  agreed 
that  the  abolition  of  all  licensed  monopolies  and  im- 

1  Published  in  The  Workingman's  Advocate ,  Mar.  6,  1830. 


184  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

prisonment  for  debt,  a  revision,  of  our  present  militia  and 
law  systems,  equal  taxation  of  property,  an  effective  lien 
law,  a  district  system  of  elections,  the  number  of  legis¬ 
lators  reduced  to  the  proportion  of  territory  and  popu¬ 
lation,  a  transfer  of  a  greater  part  of  the  appointing  power 
from  the  executive  to  the  people,  the  credit  and  banking 
systems,  mortgages,  salaries,  rotation  in  office,  small 
districts  for  the  recording  of  land  titles,  and  the  settle¬ 
ment  of  estates,  the  third  article,  the  poll-tax,  and,  above 
all,  an  universal  and  useful  education,  afford  subjects 
for  their  vigilant  enquiry  and  severe  investigation.” 

Measured  by  success  in  the  attainment  of  its  objects, 
this  first  American  labor  movement  has  but  few  equals  in 
the  history  of  the  world.  A  study  of  the  list  of  the 
things  for  which  it  worked  is  a  study  of  the  establishment 
of  what  is  best  in  present  society.1  The  platforms  of  the 

1  The  platform  upon  which  Ebenezer  Ford  was  elected  to  the  New 
York  legislature  read  as  follows :  — 

“Resolved,  In  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  the  first  appropriation  of 
the  soil  of  this  state  to  private  and  exclusive  possession  was  eminently 
and  barbarously  unjust. 

“Resolved,  That  it  was  substantially  feudal  in  its  character,  inasmuch 
as  those  who  received  enormous  and  unequal  possessions  were  lords, 
and  those  who  received  little  or  nothing,  were  vassals. 

“Resolved,  That  hereditary  transmission  of  wealth  on  the  one  hand, 
and  poverty  on  the  other,  has  brought  down  to  the  present  generation 
all  the  evils  of  the  feudal  system,  —  and  this,  in  our  opinion,  is  the  prime 
cause  of  all  our  calamities. 

“Resolved,  In  this  view  of  the  matter,  the  greatest  knaves,  impostors 
and  paupers  of  the  age  are  our  bankers,  who  swear  they  have  promised 
to  pay  their  creditors  thirty  or  thirty-five  millions  of  dollars  on  demand, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  have,  as  they  also  swear,  only  three  or  four 
millions  to  do  it  with. 

“Resolved,  That  more  than  one  hundred  broken  banks  within  a  few 
years  past  admonish  the  community  to  destroy  banks  altogether. 

“  Resolved,  That  exemption  is  a  privilege ;  and  as  such  the  exemption 


THE  FIRST  LABOR  MOVEMENT  — 1824-1836  185 


labor  parties  of  this  time  are  new  Declarations  of  Inde¬ 
pendence,  throwing  off  old  shackles  and  drafting  the  lines 

from  taxation  of  churches  and  church  property,  and  the  property  of 
priests  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  $1500  is  a  direct  and  positive  robbery 
of  the  people.” 

A  far  more  typical  platform  than  this  is  the  one  submitted  by  a  com¬ 
mittee  of  fifty  to  a  great  workingmen’s  meeting  held  in  Military  Hall, 
New  York,  Dec.  29,  1829,  and  reported  in  the  Free  Enquirer  for  March 
20,  1830.  The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  this  report :  — 

“  We  take  the  opportunity  solemnly  to  aver  .  .  .  that  we  have  no  desire 
or  intention  of  disturbing  the  rights  of  property  in  individuals  or  the 
public.  .  .  . 

“One  principle  that  we  contend  for  is  the  abolition  of  imprisonment 
for  debt.  ... 

“Resolved  that  we  explicitly  disavow  all  intention  to  intermeddle 
with  rights  of  individuals  either  as  to  property  or  religion.  .  .  . 

“Resolved  that  we  are  in  favor  of  searching  laws  for  the  detection  of 
concealed  or  fraudulently  conveyed  property ;  and  emphatically  in 
favor  of  the  entire  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt. 

•  ••••••* 

“Resolved  that  next  to  life  and  liberty,  we  consider  education  the 
greatest  blessing  bestowed  upon  mankind. 

•  ••••••* 

“Resolved  that  our  sentiments  in  relation  to  a  well  constructed  lien 
law,  which  would  secure  to  thousands  of  our  fellow  citizens  that  just 
recompense  their  services  entitle  them  to,  and  prevent  innumerable 
frauds  on  the  producing  classes,  are  well  known  to  our  representatives, 
and  that  we  expect  their  efficient  support  for  this  measure. 

“Resolved  that  our  present  militia  system  is  highly  oppressive  to  the 
producing  classes  of  the  community,  without  any  beneficial  result  to 
individuals  or  the  state. 

“Resolved  that  the  present  auction  system,  which  operates  as  a 
means  of  oppressing  the  producing  classes,  by  introducing  quantities 
of  the  products  and  labor  of  foreign  countries,  which  otherwise  would 
be  furnished  by  our  own  mechanics,  is  fraught  with  alarming  evils,  and 
should  be  immediately  restricted. 

“  Resolved  that  the  credit  system  on  duties  at  our  custom  house,  which 
furnishes  the  auctioneers  and  foreign  importers  with  an  additional 
capital  of  $15,000,000  at  all  times  in  this  city,  the  greater  part  of  which 


186  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


along  which  progress  was  to  be  made  for  the  next  gen¬ 
eration  and  more.  There  was  little  that  was  fantastic  in 
their  program.  There  was  little  of  the  populistic  reac¬ 
tion  that  has  so  generally  characterized  the  pioneers  in 
their  attacks  upon  a  creditor  class. 

When  the  movement  died  out  in  1835  to  1837,  the  face 
of  society  had  been  largely  transformed.  Imprisonment 
for  debt  was  no  more.  A  mechanics’  lien  law  was  in 
existence  in  nearly  every  state  in  the  Union,  and  the 
principle  that  the  producer  has  the  first  claim  upon  his 
product  had  become  a  fundamental  principle  in  Ameri¬ 
can  jurisprudence.  The  credit  system,  as  applied  to 
the  tariff,  which,  as  was  pointed  out  by  the  laborers, 


is  drawn  from  the  producing  classes,  they  being  the  consumers,  is  an 
evil  of  immense  magnitude,  and  demands  our  immediate  attention. 

“Resolved  that  the  banks  under  the  administration  of  their  present 
directors  and  officers,  and  by  the  concert  of  auctioneers  and  foreigners, 
aided  by  custom  house  credits,  form  a  monopoly  that  is  hostile  to  the 
equal  rights  of  the  American  merchant,  manufacturer,  mechanic,  and 
laboring-man;  and  that  the  renewal  by  the  legislature  of  the  charters 
prayed  for  will  confirm  and  perpetuate  an  aristocracy  which  eventually 
may  shake  the  foundations  of  our  liberties  and  entail  slavery  upon  our 
posterity. 

“Resolved  that  our  courts  of  justice  should  be  so  reformed  that  the 
producing  classes  may  be  placed  upon  an  equality  with  the  wealthy. 

“Resolved  that  the  present  laws  that  compel  the  attendance  of  jurors 
and  witnesses  for  days  and  weeks  at  our  courts,  without  a  fair  compen¬ 
sation,  are  unjust,  and  require  immediate  attention. 


“Resolved,  that  with  many  of  our  past  and  present  rulers  the  great 
qualification  to  obtain  office  is  an  ability,  supposed  or  real,  to  render 
them  or  their  party  some  political  service. 

“  Resolved  that  there  should  be  no  intermediate  body  of  men  between 
the  electors  and  the  candidates.  .  .  . 

“Resolved  that  the  State  of  New  York  ought  to  be  divided  into  as 
many  districts  as  there  are  members  of  the  Assembly  to  represent  it.” 


THE  FIRST  LABOR  MOVEMENT  —  1824-1836  187 

granted  immense  loans  to  a  few  favored  shippers,  and  was 
the  means  of  building  up  some  of  the  greatest  fortunes  in 
America,1  was  abolished.  Horace  Mann  was  leading  the 
“educational  revival,”  and  the  common  school  was  an 
established  institution  in  nearly  every  state.2  The  gro¬ 
tesque  militia  system  had  been  abolished.  Important 
reforms  in  land  tenure  were  under  way  in  New  York 
State  that  were  to  wipe  out  the  last  of  the  feudal  privi¬ 
leges  of  the  land  barons.  The  war  upon  the  Bank  had 
been  taken  up  by  Jackson  and  his  frontier  followers,  and 
the  present  subtreasury  system  was  being  prepared  to 
take  its  place.  Payment  for  jurors  and  witnesses  had 
become  a  part  of  American  court  practice,  and  other 
important  reforms  tending  to  democratize  the  courts  had 
taken  place.  The  first  blow  had  been  struck  at  the 
spoils  system  in  office,  and  while  little  effect  was  pro¬ 
duced  at  this  time,  because  of  the  presence  of  forces  that 
will  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter,  these  early  achieve¬ 
ments  stand  as  guideposts  pointing  the  road  that  would 
be  traveled  many  years  later.  Presidential  electors  were 
being  elected  by  popular  vote,  and  members  of  the  leg¬ 
islature  chosen  by  districts.  Property  qualifications  for 
voting  and  for  office  had  almost  completely  disappeared, 
and  American  politics  took  on  the  form  of  democracy 
for  the  first  time. 

It  would  be  foolish  to  say  that  all  of  these  changes 
were  brought  about  directly  by  the  working-class  move¬ 
ment.  But  the  organized  workers  were  the  only  ones 
that  were  publicly  and  energetically  demanding  these 

1  Gustavus  Myers,  “Great  American  Fortunes,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  79-80. 

2  Edwin  G.  Dexter,  “History  of  Education  in  the  United  States,” 
pp.  98-100. 


1 88  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


steps.  They  were  strong  enough  to  exert  a  great  in¬ 
fluence.  No  other  force  can  begin  to  compete  with  the 
labor  movement  as  a  direct  cause  of  these  important 
steps.  Is  it,  then,  too  much  to  say  that  this  movement 
of  the  workers,  measured  by  the  impress  it  left,  was  the 
most  important  event  in  American  history? 

This  labor  movement  had  its  philosophical  as  well  as  its 
political  expression.  Three  writers  at  this  time  sought  to 
express  Labor’s  attitude  toward  the  economic  problems 
with  which  it  was  confronted.  Thomas  Skidmore  wrote 
“ Rights  of  Man  to  Property”  in  1829.  He  was  an 
active  organizer  of  the  New  York  Labor  Party  in  the 
beginning,  but  was  finally  forced  out  of  the  organization 
in  an  internal  dissension,  and  afterwards  ran  for  office  on 
an  independent  ticket.  L.  Byllesby  wrote  “Sources  and 
Effects  of  Unequal  Wealth”  in  1826,  and  Stephen  Simpson 
published  his  “Workingman’s  Manual”  in  1831.  It 
was  to  be  nearly  thirty  years  before  another  volume 
worthy  of  notice  should  be  added  to  the  literature  of 
labor  in  the  United  States. 

In  these  works  we  find  attempts  to  construct  a  political 
economy  based  upon  social  relations  as  seen  through  the 
eyes  of  workers.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  attempt  was 
a  success,  although  the  work  of  these  writers  compares 
fairly  well  with  contemporaneous  works  on  the  same 
subject  in  other  countries. 

All  three  are  based  upon  a  more  or  less  clear  presenta¬ 
tion  of  the  labor  value  theory,  and  it  is  easy  to  find 
germs  of  a  theory  of  exploitation  based  upon  the  prin¬ 
ciple  of  ownership.  But  an  economic  philosophy  is 
not  developed  in  so  short  a  period  as  the  life  of  this 
movement. 


THE  FIRST  LABOR  MOVEMENT  — 1824-1836  189 


In  the  discussion  of  practical  tactics  much  more  was 
accomplished.  The  doctrine  of  the  “class  struggle,” 
based  upon  contending  economic  interests,  was  clearly 
expressed.  When  Karl  Marx  was  a  boy  of  thirteen, 
Simpson  was  writing  a  paragraph  that  contains  much  of 
the  germ  of  the  Communist  Manifesto.  Simpson  says, 
after  a  discussion  of  what  he  calls  “personal  parties” :  1 

“Parties  of  interest  .  .  .  are  less  noxious,  because  one 
party  may  be  brought  to  check  or  control  another,  as 
the  party  of  stockholders  and  capitalists  may  be  met  and 
counteracted  by  the  party  of  the  producers;  which  is  a 
real  party  of  general  interest ,  whose  ascendency  could  not 
fail  to  shed  a  genial  and  prosperous  beam  upon  the  whole 
society.  Such  a  party  would  merely  exhibit  the  interests 
of  society ,  concentrating  for  the  true  fulfillment  of  the 
original  terms  of  the  social  compact,  the  happiness  and 
the  comfort  of  the  whole.  This  we  now  behold  in  those 
parties  of  the  workingmen,  who  .  .  .  steadily  follow  in 
the  path  of  science  and  justice,  under  the  banner  of  — 
labor  the  source  of  all  wealth ,  and  industry  the  arbiter  of 
its  distribution”  (italics  in  original). 

The  question  of  “pure  and  simple”  trade  unionism 
vs.  political  activity  was  debated  at  this  period,  with 
much  the  same  arguments  that  are  used  to-day. 

We  search  this  period  in  vain,  however,  to  find  any 
general  acceptation  of  the  principles  of  collectivism. 
Not  even  when  Robert  Owen  addressed  great  meetings 


1  “The  Workingman’s  Manual”  (1831),  p.  23.  See  also  The  Man , 
May  30,  1834,  communication  by  “Boston  Mechanic”;  Resolution  in 
Mechanics ’  Free  Press,  Aug.  16,  1828;  ibid.,  Sept.  20,  1828;  Free  En¬ 
quirer,  Feb.  4,  1829,  for  expressions  on  class  struggle,  and  The  National 
Laborer ,  June  24  and  July  6,  1836,  on  political  action. 


/ 


IQO  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

of  the  workers  and  took  a  part  in  formulating  their  reso¬ 
lutions  1  was  he  able  to  impress  his  ideas  upon  this  early 
labor  movement.  The  factory  system  was  not  suffi¬ 
ciently  ripe  for  a  collectivist  labor  movement.  Col¬ 
lectivism  in  all  its  forms  was  still  a  utopian  scheme  of 
dreamers  in  other  classes  of  society.  The  rampant  in¬ 
dividualism  of  young  competitive  capitalism  determined 
the  Zeitgeist  of  the  period,  and  that  spirit  made  its  in¬ 
fluence  felt  even  upon  the  labor  movement  that  fought 
that  capitalism. 

1  Meeting  reported  in  Workingman's  Advocate ,  Oct.  31,  1829, 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


THE  YOUTH  OE  CAPITALISM  —  1830-1850 

The  forces  and  interest  whose  germination  took  place 
about  1814  to  1819,  came  into  full  view  during  this  period. 
It  was  a  time  in  which  economic  interests  were  ma¬ 
neuvering  to  strengthen  their  position  and  prepare  for 
coming  struggles.  Population  was  shifting  rapidly, 
and  the  direction  of  that  shifting  was  perhaps  the  most 
important  feature  of  the  period.  Until  this  time  settle¬ 
ment  west  of  the  Alleghenies  had  been  confined  almost 
exclusively  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  Ohio  River. 
Michigan,  Wisconsin,  northern  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  In¬ 
diana  were  still  almost  as  completely  in  the  possession 
of  the  Indians  as  when  the  continent  was  discovered. 
Chicago  was  only  a  trading  post  in  the  midst  of  a  swamp. 
The  whole  line  of  lake  ports  that  have  become  such  a 
prominent,  and  indeed  almost  dominant  feature  of  the 
social  and  industrial  life  of  this  nation  were  largely  but 
meeting  places  for  fur  traders  and  Indians. 

Immigration  had  flowed  down  the  Ohio  River  and  up 
through  Cumberland  Gap  from  the  slave  states  of  Ten¬ 
nessee,  Kentucky,  and  Virginia.  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
discussing  the  admission  of  Kansas  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  February  29,  i860,  spoke  as  follows  of  the  immi¬ 
gration  into  Illinois  prior  to  1830 :  — 

“The  fact  is  that  the  people  of  the  territory  of  Uli- 

191 


192 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


nois,  when  it  was  a  territory,  were  about  all  from  the 
southern  states,  particularly  from  Kentucky  and  Ten¬ 
nessee.  The  southern  end  of  the  state  was  the  only 
part  at  first  settled.  .  .  .  The  northern  part  .  .  .  was 
then  in  the  possession  of  the  Indians,  and  so  were  north¬ 
ern  Indiana  and  northern  Ohio;  and  a  Yankee  could 
not  get  to  Illinois  at  all,  unless  he  passed  down  through 
Virginia  and  over  into  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  The 
consequence  was  that  99  out  of  100  of  the  settlers  were 
from  the  slave  states.  They  carried  the  old  family 
servants  with  them  and  kept  them.  .  .  .  When  they 
assembled  to  make  the  constitution  of  Illinois  in  1818 
.  .  .  nearly  every  delegate  to  the  convention  brought  his 

4 

negro  along  with  him  to  black  his  boots,  play  the  fiddle, 
wait  upon  him  and  take  care  of  his  room.  .  .  . 

“But  they  said,  ‘Experience  proves  that  it  is  not 
going  to  be  profitable  in  this  climate.’  They  had  no 
scruples  about  its  being  right,  but  they  said,  ‘We  can¬ 
not  make  any  money  by  it,  and  as  our  state  runs  away 
up  north,  up  to  those  eternal  snows,  perhaps  we  shall 
gain  population  faster  if  we  stop  slavery  and  invite  in 
the  northern  population.’ ” 

This  attitude  of  indifference  on  the  slavery  question 
was  soon  to  pass  away.  Upland  cotton  was  carrying 
the  slaveholding  planters  in  great  numbers  into  Ala¬ 
bama,  Georgia,  and  Mississippi.  Here  slavery  was  im¬ 
mensely  profitable.  The  slave  owners  therefore  wished 
to  control  the  national  government,  to  defend  and  ad¬ 
vance  slavery. 

By  1830  a  new  and  northern  gateway  to  this  region 
had  been  opened  up,  and  through  this  a  throng  of  settlers 
from  New  England,  New  York,  and  later  from  Europe 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850  193 

were  pouring  into  the  lake  states.  These  were  founding 
a  society  in  which  another  form  of  labor  was  more  profit¬ 
able  than  chattel  slavery.  They  also  were  to  demand 
the  use  of  the  national  government  to  further  the  sys¬ 
tem  from  which  they  derived  a  profit.  Out  of  the  clash 
of  these  two  systems  was  to  come  the  Civil  War. 

Agriculture  was  still  the  occupation  of  far  more  than 
a  majority  of  the  population.  The  upper  Mississippi 
Valley,  henceforth  the  agricultural  center  of  the  United 
States,  was  being  developed  by  1830.  Great  quantities 
of  grain  were  raised  in  these  states,  but  the  difficulty  of 
marketing  made  such  crops  of  little  profit.1 

Whenever  corn  is  cheap  and  too  plenty  to  be  trans¬ 
formed  into  whisky,  it  is  always  made  into  pork.  The 
hog  has  been  the  “  walking  corncrib”  that  has  marketed 
the  maize  of  the  American  farmer.  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  raised  vast  numbers  of 
hogs.2  In  the  beginning  these  were  driven  in  great 
droves  over  the  mountains  to  the  seaport  markets. 

By  1820  a  new  and  important  step  had  been  taken  in 
this  industry.  Instead  of  driving  the  hogs  to  market 
while  alive,  packing  plants  were  established  along  the 
Ohio  River,  where,  during  the  winter,  the  animals  were 
slaughtered  and  salted  down  for  shipment.3  These 
slaughtering  establishments  were  little  like  the  great 
packing  houses  of  to-day.  They  were  rented  to  the 
butchers  for  killing  and  dressing,  and  the  dressed  meat 

1 T.  Flint,  “Condensed  Geography  and  History  of  the  Western 
States,”  p.  227. 

2  J.  N.  Peck,  “  A  Gazetteer  of  Illinois  ”  (1834),  p.  41. 

3  John  Macgregor,  “Progress  of  America”  (1847);  Semple,  “Ameri¬ 
can  History  and  its  Geographic  Conditions,”  p.  358. 


194 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


was  then  bought  by  the  packers,  who  maintained  estab¬ 
lishments  in  close  proximity  to  the  slaughter  houses.1 

Illinois  was  in  the  “ranch  stage”  of  cattle  raising  until 
about  1840.  Great  herds  of  cattle  were  fed  on  the 
prairies  and  then  rounded  up  and  driven  into  Ohio  to 
receive  further  feeding  prior  to  the  final  drive  to  the 
stall  feeders  of  Pennsylvania.2  This  is  the  same  com¬ 
bination  of  ranch,  pasture,  and  feeders  that  existed  on 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghenies  prior  to  the  Revo¬ 
lution.  These  stages  were  continually  moving  west,  and 
the  ranch  stage  had  already  entered  Missouri 3  by  1830, 
and  reached  Texas  a  few  years  later.4  In  Tennessee, 
Ohio,  and  Kentucky  another  stage  had  been  reached. 
Here  the  first  steps  were  being  taken  in  the  introduction 
of  improved  breeds  of  cattle.5 

The  products  of  these  states  were  all  pressing  for  a 
market,  and  competition  marked  out  lines  of  communi¬ 
cation  and  influence  along  which  were  to  be  waged  indus¬ 
trial  and  political  struggles. 

While  agriculture  was  still  the  oldest  and  largest  of 
the  industrial  family,  manufacturing  had  already  grown 
to  a  lusty,  clamoring  young  giant,  boastful  of  achieve¬ 
ment,  lustful  of  power,  and  eager  for  government  in¬ 
fluence.  Iron  and  the  textiles  had  grasped  the  leading 
position  and  were  directing  tariff  policies.  Each  of  these 

1  Macgregor,  loc.  cit. 

2  J.  N.  Peck,  “A  Gazetteer  of  Illinois”  (1834),  p.  40;  Flint,  “Con¬ 
densed  Geography  and  History  of  the  Western  States,”  p.  128. 

3  Flint,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  73. 

4  Census,  1880,  Vol.  III.  Special  article  by  Charles  Gordon,  “The 
Production  of  Meat,”  p.  n. 

5  Census  i860,  volume  on  “Agriculture,”  “Cattle  and  the  Cattle 
Trade,”  p.  cxxxiii. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850  195 

had  settled  in  the  localities  that  they  now  occupy.  By 
1830  the  United  States  was  second  only  to  England  in 
the  cotton  industry.  In  1840  three  fourths  of  all  Ameri¬ 
can  cotton  goods  were  produced  in  New  England.1 

Two  great  inventions  revolutionized  the  iron  indus¬ 
try  and  gave  it  a  tremendous  impetus.  The  hot  blast 
process  was  first  applied  in  1834,  and  at  once  increased 
the  production  of  each  furnace  40  per  cent,  with  a 
saving  of  the  same  percentage  in  fuel.2  In  1840  anthra¬ 
cite  coal  began  to  be  used  in  the  smelting  of  iron,  and 
within  ten  years  had  almost  supplanted  the  more  expen¬ 
sive  charcoal  method.3 

In  1831  iron  was  first  used  for  pillars,  window  casings, 
and  other  general  building  purposes.4  Wrought  iron 
pipes  were  first  manufactured  in  1846,  and  one  year 
later  the  first  firm  for  the  production  of  machinist  tools 
was  established  in  Nashua,  New  Hampshire.5  The 
manufacture  of  power  looms  reached  such  a  state  of 
perfection  that  in  1831  they  began  to  be  exported  to 
England.6 

The  close  proximity  of  iron  ore,  limestone,  and  coal, 
the  three  essentials  to  the  production  of  iron,  had  already 
determined  that  Pittsburg  should  be  the  center  of  the 
production  of  this  metal.7 

At  first  the  entire  upper  Mississippi  Valley  expected 
to  be  the  seat  of  manufacturing,  a  destiny  which  it  was 

1  E.  L.  Bogart,  “Economic  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  149. 

2  M.  D.  Swank,  “History  of  the  Manufacture  of  Iron  in  all  Ages,” 
P-  453- 

3  Ibid.,pp.  178,354-362. 

4  L.  Bishop,  “History  of  American  Manufactures,”  Vol.  II,  p.  402. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  411.  6  Ibid.,  p.  363. 

7  M.  D.  Swank,  “History  of  Iron  in  All  Ages,”  pp.  176-178. 


/ 


196  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

to  attain  in  another  generation.  Travelers  filled  their 
notebooks  with  lists  of  the  factories  they  met  in  this 
locality.1  The  temporary  disappointment  in  this  regard 
had  important  political  consequences. 

It  was  in  transportation,  however,  that  the  great  in¬ 
dustrial  revolution  of  this  time  was  wrought.  The  canal 
craze  that  had  been  raging  for  several  years  reached  its 
climax  and  scored  its  greatest  triumph  in  the  opening  of 
the  Erie  Canal  in  1825.  The  effect  of  this  engineering 
work  upon  the  next  thirty  years  of  American  history 
can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 

The  next  season  after  its  opening  19,000  boats  were 
counted  as  passing  West  Troy  on  the  road  to  New  York, 
most  of  which  came  from  the  West,  over  the  Erie  Canal.2 
These  bore  the  products  of  the  West  to  market.  An 
equal  number  of  boats  carried  a  human  cargo  in  the 
other  direction.  This  new  flood  of  immigration  changed 
the  current  of  history  in  the  West,  and  later  of  the 
whole  country.  The  Erie  Canal  “  shifted  the  great  trans- 
Allegheny  route  away  from  the  Potomac,  out  of  the  belt 
of  the  slaveholding,  agricultural  South,  to  the  free,  in¬ 
dustrial  North,  and  placed  it  at  the  back  door  of  New 
England,  whence  poured  westward  a  tide  of  Puritan 
immigrants,  infusing  elements  of  vigorous  conscience  and 
energy  into  all  the  northern  zone  of  states  from  the 
Genesee  River  to  the  Missouri  and  Minnesota.”  3 

The  whole  district  around  the  Great  Lakes  that  had 
lain  so  long  almost  untouched  by  settlement  was  filled 

1  T.  Flint,  “  Condensed  Geography ‘and  History  of  the  Western  States,” 
Vol.  I,  p.  224. 

2  Ellen  C.  Semple,  “American  History  and  its  Geographic  Condi¬ 
tions,”  pp.  268-269.  *  Ibid. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850 


197 


with  eager  immigrants.  From  1830  to  1840  the  popu¬ 
lation  of  Michigan  increased  from  31,639  to  212,267, 
nearly  all  coming  through  the  Erie  Canal.  Wisconsin 
and  northern  Illinois  grew  with  almost  equal  rapidity, 
and  received  their  increase  by  the  same  route.1  Many 
of  these  immigrants  came  direct  from  Europe,  thus  in¬ 
troducing  a  new  element  into  the  population  of  this 
region. 

The  general  application  of  steam  to  boats  upon  the 
Great  Lakes  which  was  taking  place  at  this  time  served 
to  accentuate  nearly  all  the  movements  just  described. 
It  brought  population  to  the  lake  ports,  added  to  the 
importance  of  the  Erie  Canal,  and  built  up  the  small 
farmer  and  trader  and  manufacturing  class  in  the  upper 
Mississippi  Valley. 

Then  came  the  most  revolutionary  of  all  the  inventions 
of  a  century  of  invention.  Steam  was  applied  to  the 
hauling  of  cars  upon  rails. 

At  once  the  “ circle  of  the  market”  —  the  space  within 
which  an  article  can  be  profitably  sold  —  was  multiplied 
several  fold.2  A  factory  could  now  deliver  its  product 
at  much  more  distant  points.  It  could  reach  more 
customers.  It  could  grow  to  an  hitherto  inconceivable 
size. 

The  first  railroads  reflected  all  the  crude  anarchy  that 
is  characteristic  of  the  effect  of  inventions  under  com¬ 
petition.  It  was  not  simply  that  the  roads  were  me¬ 
chanically  crude,  although  the  defects  in  that  line  were 
innumerable.  All  the  problems  of  track,  and  rolling 

1  “History  of  the  Great  Lakes”  (no  author  given),  pp.  183-189. 

2 1.  L.  Ringwalt,  “Development  of  Transportation  Systems  in  the 
United  States,”  p.  129. 


1 98  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


stock  and  engine  construction  had  to  be  solved  with  a 
lack  of  engineering  skill  and  mechanical  facilities  almost 
inconceivable  in  these  days.1  There  was  an  equal 
crudity  and  confusion  in  the  relations  of  the  various 
roads.  Owned  by  a  multitude  of  companies,  laid  out 
upon  no  definite  plan,  with  no  conception  of  future 
development,  they  reflected  the  anarchy  of  small  capitalist 
individualism.2  With  or  without  system  or  order,  rail¬ 
roads  filled  a  most  pressing  need  in  a  country  of  such 
magnificent  distances  as  the  United  States,  and  they 
were  built  with  remarkable  rapidity.3  The  enthusiasm 
that  had  been  devoted  to  canals  was  turned  directly 
toward  the  new  method  of  transportation.  Since  the 
canals  had  been  built  largely  by  governments,  it  was 

1  John  Macgregor,  “The  Progress  of  America”  (1847),  Vol.  II, p.  699  : 
“No  two  railroads  are  constructed  alike.  The  fish-bellied  rails  of  some, 
weighing  forty  pounds  per  lineal  yard,  rest  upon  cast-iron  chains,  weigh¬ 
ing  sixteen  pounds  each;  in  others  plate  rails  and  malleable  iron, 
inches  broad  and  3  inch  thick,  are  fixed  by  iron  spikes  to  wooden  sleep¬ 
ers  ;  in  others  a  plate  rail  is  spiked  down  to  tree-nails  of  oak  or  locust 
wood,  driven  into  jumper  holes  bored  in  the  stone  curb ;  in  others  longi¬ 
tudinal  wooden  runners,  one  foot  in  breadth,  and  from  three  to  four 
inches  in  thickness,  are  imbedded  in  broken  stone  or  gravel,  on  these 
runners  are  placed  transverse  sleepers,  formed  of  round  timbers  with 
the  bark  left  on,  and  wrought  iron  rails  are  affixed  to  the  sleepers  by  long 
spikes,  the  heads  of  which  are  countersunk  in  the  rail ;  in  others  round 
piles  of  timber,  about  12  inches  in  diameter,  are  driven  into  the  ground 
as  far  as  they  will  go,  about  three  feet  apart;  the  tops  are  then  cross¬ 
cut,  and  the  rails  spiked  to  them.” 

1  N.  S.  Shaler,  “The  United  States  of  America,”  Vol.  II,  p.  72;  Amer¬ 
ican  Railroad  Journal ,  Vol.  I,  No.  1,  Jan.  2,  1832. 

3 1.  L.  Ringwalt,  loc.  cit.,  p.  75,  gives  following  table  of  railroads  con¬ 
structed  annually :  — 

Year  .  1830  1831  1832  1833  1834  1835  1836  1837  1838  1839 
Miles  .  39.8  98.7  191.3  1 15.9  213.9  137.8  280  348.3  452.8  385.8 

Total  mileage  built  in  decade,  2264.67. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850 


199 


but  natural  that  railroads  should  be  constructed  in  the 
same  manner.  Many  of  the  state  governments  went 
heavily  into  debt  to  secure  funds  for  railroad  con¬ 
struction.  Cities  vied  with  one  another  in  the  same 
way.1 

The  panic  of  1837  brought  many  of  these  projects, 
and  with  them  the  states  that  had  financed  them,  to 
the  verge  of  bankruptcy.2  Indeed,  in  some  instances 
the  bankruptcy  came  before  the  railroads  were  even 
started.  So  it  was  that  there  came  a  strong  reaction 
against  government  enterprise  in  railroad  building.  It 
could  not  have  been  different,  in  a  society  that  was 
filled  with  the  narrow  individualism  of  youthful 
capitalism. 

While  the  railroads  constructed  directly  under  munici¬ 
pal  or  state  governments  were  insignificant,  the  struggle 
of  various  cities  for  commercial  advantage  had  a  far- 
reaching  influence  upon  all  forms  of  communication. 
The  three  great  gateways  through  the  Allegheny  barrier 
had  each  a  seaport  at  the  eastern  end.  At  first  Balti¬ 
more,  with  the  Cumberland  Gap  and  the  National  Turn¬ 
pike,  had  the  advantage.  Then  Philadelphia,  with  her 
system  of  canals  and  inclined  planes  connecting  her  with 
the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  seemed  destined  to  control  the 
trade  of  the  great  trans-Allegheny  region.3  The  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  Erie  Canal  had  a  revolutionary  effect 
upon  this  struggle  of  cities  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  as 
it  had  upon  the  forces  struggling  for  supremacy  at  its 

1  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  VI, 
PP-  347-350. 

2  McMaster,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  527,  530. 

3  H.  S.  Tanner,  “  General  Outline  of  the  United  States”  (1825),  p.  67. 


200 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


western  end.  New  York  leaped  forward  in  wealth  and 
population  as  if  by  magic.1  The  whole  route  of  the 
canal  through  New  York  State  was  transformed.  New 
cities  sprang  up.  Real  estate  values  multiplied  at  a 
rate  that  brought  a  golden  harvest  to  dealers  in  that 
commodity.  Not  only  in  New  York,  but  in  Pennsylvania, 
the  local  politics  of  the  time  hinged  on  questions  of  canal 
building  and  maintenance.2 

The  coming  of  railways  strengthened  the  tendencies 
set  in  motion  by  the  Erie  Canal.  Although  Baltimore 
was  the  first  to  make  use  of  the  new  means  of  transpor¬ 
tation  to  connect  her  with  the  West  by  means  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  and  Philadelphia  hastened 
to  construct  the  Philadelphia  and  Columbia,  connecting 
her  with  Pittsburg,  yet  when  New  York  had  once  laid 
the  rails  that  followed  the  route  of  the  Erie  Canal,  low 
grades,  and  connection  with  the  Great  Lakes,  whose 


1  The  following  table  from  Hunt’s  Merchant  Magazine ,  Aug.,  1868, 
p.  113,  shows  effect  upon  Philadelphia  and  New  York  :  — 


Year 

Value  of  Imports 

Value  of  Exports 

Population 

New  York 

Philadelphia 

New  York 

Philadelphia 

New 

York 

Phila¬ 

delphia 

1820 

1830 

1840 

1850 

$38,556,064 

60,064,942 

116,667,558 

$9,525,893 

8,464,882 

12,065,834 

$11,769,511 

17,666,624 

32,408,689 

47.580,357 

$5,743,549 

4,291,793 

6,820,145 

4,501,606 

123,706 

203,007 

312,712 

515,394 

137,097 

188,961 

258,832 

409,353 

2  Julius  Winden,  “The  Influence  of  the  Erie  Canal  upon  the  Popula¬ 
tion  along  its  Course”;  quoted  in  A.  B.  Hulbert,  “Great  American 
Canals,”  Vol.  II,  Chap.  V.  See  also  Charles  McCarthy,  “The  Anti- 
Masonic  Party,”  in  American  Historical  Association  Reports,  1902, 
passim;  Wm.  Grant,  in  Hudson  River  Railroad  Reports,  pp.  9-10. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850 


201 


influence  as  avenues  of  commerce  was  now  being  felt, 
renewed  the  advantage  given  by  the  canal  and  which 
she  h&s  retained  to  the  present  day.1 

New  Orleans  was  another  competitor  for  this  western 
trade.  Already  she  was  losing  the  advantage  which  a 
favorable  river  current  had  given  her,  and  this  change 
in  trade  routes  was  building  up  forces  that  were  deter¬ 
mining  the  outcome  of  the  great  conflict  between  the 
North  and  the  South. 

In  the  midst  of  this  industrial  struggle,  certain  fairly 
well  defined  interests  can  be  traced.  New  England, 
while  still  possessing  powerful  commercial  interests,  was 
dominated  by  the  new  manufacturing  and  financial  class. 
The  Middle  states  were  more  closely  affiliated  with  her 
than  with  any  other  section,  but  the  strong  manufac¬ 
turing  influence  of  Pennsylvania  was  already  making 
her  the  leader  in  all  demands  for  high  tariff.  The 
South,  fairly  prosperous  and  contented  with  the  rapid 
extension  of  the  cultivation  of  upland  cotton,  was  united, 
but  by  no  means  aggressive  in  defending  its  interests 
save  in  regard  to  the  tariff.  The  most  striking  interest 
was  undoubtedly  the  young,  virile,  belligerent  West. 
It  played  so  prominent  a  part  that  most  historians 
speak  of  this  time  as  the  “Rule  of  the  Frontier.”  The 
frontier  that  ruled,  however,  was  not  that  of  the  pioneer 
settler  of  the  land,  but  the  little-capitalist,  petty  trading, 
social  frontier.  How  this  outlook  came  to  dominate  is 
the  real  story  of  this  period. 

In  the  decade  preceding  1830  New  England  had  be- 

1  Chauncey  M.  Depew  (editor),  “One  Hundred  Years  of  American 
Commerce”;  chapter  on  “Interstate  Commerce,”  by  Edward  A.  Mose¬ 
ley,  p.  27. 


202 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


come  manufacturing  and  high  tariff.1  The  South  had 
become  agricultural  and  free  trade. 

In  the  beginning  the  West  sided  with  the  North 
Atlantic  states  for  the  tariff,  and  Henry  Clay  was  “the 
Father  of  the  American  System.”  But  by  1832,  when 
Calhoun  had  evolved  from  a  protectionist  to  a  “  Nulli¬ 
fies  ”  ready  to  urge  his  native  state  to  leave  the  Union 
rather  than  endure  a  high  tariff,  and  Webster  had  under¬ 
gone  an  identical  evolution  in  the  opposite  direction  from 
free  trader  to  protectionist,  Henry  Clay  had  also  under¬ 
gone  a  change.  He  now  appeared  as  “the  Great  Com¬ 
promiser,”  with  the  Compromise  of  1832  providing  for 
a  gradual  reduction  of  the  tariff,  much  more  in  accord 
with  the  ideas  of  the  South  than  of  New  England. 

The  evolution  of  Clay,  like  that  of  Webster  and  Cal¬ 
houn,  was  due  to  economic  changes  in  the  district  from 
which  he  came.  Until  about  1830  the  West  thought 
itself  destined  to  become  quickly  a  great  manufacturing 
district.  The  crying  need  for  the  upper  Mississippi 
Valley  was  a  market  for  its  crops  This  market  was  to 
be  furnished  by  the  great  manufacturing  centers  soon  to 
be  established.  So  it  was  that  the  “home  market”  argu¬ 
ment  made  the  West  protectionist.  But  as  time  passed 
the  manufactures  of  the  West  grew  slowly.  At  the  same 
time  it  became  possible  to  export  the  agricultural  prod¬ 
ucts  over  the  improved  transportation  routes.  The  West 
grew  indifferent  to  protection.  Other  interests  tended 
to  alienate  it  still  further  from  its  former  ally. 

New  England  and  the  Middle  Atlantic  states,  where 
manufacturing  was  increasing  by  stupendous  leaps, 
wanted  cheap  wage  labor.  The  West  wanted  settlers; 

1  F.  J.  Turner,  “  Rise  of  the  New  West,”  pp.  314-317. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850  203 

and  every  western  pioneer  who  left  the  manufacturing 
centers  reduced  the  supply  of  labor  power  and  raised  its 
price.  Therefore  the  manufacturing  states  opposed  the 
development  of  the  West.  They  sought  to  restrict 
settlement,  and  opposed  all  measures  looking  to  a  liberal 
land  policy.  At  the  time  when  the  West  was  quivering 
in  the  balance  in  its  allegiance  to  the  protective  policy 
and  the  northeastern  states,  there  came  a  dramatic  inci¬ 
dent  whose  significance  has  been  almost  completely  over¬ 
looked  by  those  who  are  familiar  with  some  of  its  phases. 
Tens  of  thousands  of  American  schoolboys  have  de¬ 
claimed  Daniel  Webster’s  great  peroration,  with  its  con¬ 
clusion  of  “Liberty  and  the  Union,  now  and  forever,  one 
and  inseparable”;  but  how  many  of  these  know  that  this 
speech  was  delivered  in  support  of  a  resolution  offered 
by  Senator  Foote  of  Connecticut,  proposing  to  stop  the 
survey  of  public  lands,  limit  the  sales  to  those  already 
in  the  market,  and  abolish  the  office  of  surveyor-general  ? 

When  this  resolution  was  presented  in  the  Senate, 
Benton  of  Missouri,  long  the  spokesman  of  western 
interests,  attacked  it  bitterly.  Hayne  of  South  Carolina, 
seeing  an  opportunity  to  draw  the  West  from  its  alliance 
with  the  Northeast,  came  to  Benton’s  support,  and 
pointed  out  that  the  object  of  this  resolution  was  to 
restrict  the  expansion  of  population  until  a  servile  and 
helpless  wageworking  class  should  develop  to  supply 
cheap  labor  for  manufactures.  Webster  accepted  the 
challenge,  and,  ignoring  Benton,  whose  support  he 
wished  to  retain,  attacked  Hayne  in  the  orations  that 
have  become  so  famous.  Although  generations  of  elo¬ 
cutionists  have  sung  the  praises  of  Webster  and  cele¬ 
brated  his  victory  in  forensic  fireworks,  yet  he  tern- 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


porarily  lost  the  cause  for  which  he  fought.  The  West 
was  the  ally  of  the  South  for  the  next  generation.1 

There  were  other  causes  of  hostility  between  the  West 
and  the  Northeast.  The  fish  of  New  England  and  the 
flesh  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  came  into  competition  in 
the  markets  of  the  world,  and  competitors  never  love 
one  another.  The  temper  of  the  West  was  not  im¬ 
proved  on  this  question  by  the  fact  that  the  salt  which 
was  so  necessary  to  the  packing  of  western  meat  was 
subject  to  a  high  tariff,  which  was  rebated  to  the  fishers 
of  New  England.  This  rebate,  in  the  form  of  a  bounty, 
was  a  dearly  loved  privilege  of  the  fishermen,  which  gave 
them  a  great  advantage  in  the  markets  of  the  world 
and  was  another  illustration  of  the  value  of  class  in¬ 
fluence  upon  government.2 

The  whole  Indian  question  caused  further  friction. 
The  traders  who  exchanged  the  cheap  trinkets,  flimsy 
fabrics,  and  poor  whisky  for  the  rich  furs  of  the  Indians, 
objected  to  the  advance  of  settlement  that  interfered  with 

1  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  VI, 
pp.  11-29;  Thomas  H.  Benton,  “Thirty  Years’  View,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  130- 
143.  Woodrow  Wilson,  “A  History  of  the  American  People,”  Vol.  IV, 
p.  22  :  “The  New  England  men  wanted  the  settlement  of  the  West 
held  back  as  much  as  possible.  So  long  as  land  was  to  be  had  there 
almost  for  the  mere  asking,  at  no  cost  except  that  of  a  journey  and  of  a 
few  farmers’  tools  and  a  beast  or  two  for  the  plough,  the  active  men  of 
their  own  section,  whom  they  counted  on  as  skilled  workmen  in  building 
up  their  manufactures,  must  be  constantly  enticed  away  by  the  score 
and  hundred  to  seek  an  independent  life  and  livelihood  in  the  West; 
high  wages,  very  high  wages,  must  be  paid  to  keep  them,  if  indeed  they 
could  be  kept  at  all;  and  the  maintenance  of  manufactures  must  cost 
more  than  mere  protective  tariffs  could  make  good.”  See  also  Thomas 
Donaldson,  “The  Public  Domain,”  p.  205  ;  and  Charles  H.  Peck,  “The 
Jacksonian  Epoch,”  p.  162. 

2  Benton,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  143-148,  154-157. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850  205 

their  trade.  This  trade  was  now  at  its  most  profitable 
stage.  The  American  Fur  Company  of  John  Jacob 
Astor  was  making  enormous  profits,  and  had  become  a 
power  in  politics.1  It  was  especially  active  in  Michigan 
and  Wisconsin,  although  its  representatives  had  now 
reached  the  Pacific  coast. 

An  elaborate  commercial  system  had  developed  with 
the  far  western  tribes  of  Indians  and  with  the  Mexicans 
over  the  famous  Santa  Fe  Trail,  that  was  at  its  height 
from  1820  to  1840.2 

There  was  in  addition  the  long-standing  antagonism 
between  debtors  and  creditors  that  had  always  been  a 
source  of  friction  between  the  frontier  and  the  coast. 
This  antagonism  found  a  convenient  and  conspicuous 
target  in  the  second  Bank  of  the  United  States  that 
had  been  chartered  in  1816. 

Daniel  Webster  had  opposed  the  granting  of  the 
charter.  At  that  time  New  England  was  still  com¬ 
mercial,  and,  being  opposed  to  the  war  and  the  policy 
of  the  national  government,  which  was  controlled  by  the 
South,  was  also  opposed  to  all  measures  strengthening 
the  power  of  the  national  government.  At  this  time 
the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  shares  were  owned  in 
the  South.3  By  1831  the  general  shifting  of  industrial 
conditions  had  reversed  attitudes  on  the  bank  question, 
as  well  as  on  the  tariff,  and  many  other  questions.  In 
this  year  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders  was  held  in 

1  Gustavus  Myers,  “History  of  Great  American  Fortunes,”  Vol.  I, 
pp.  124-125,  et  passim;  F.  J.  Turner,  “Rise  of  the  New  West,” 
p.  113. 

2  H.  M.  Chittenden,  “The  American  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  West,” 

Vol.  II,  p.  518.  * 

3  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States.” 


206  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Philadelphia,  with  Stephen  Girard  as  president.  It 
was  then  officially  reported  that  of  the  350,000  shares 
of  $100  each  the  United  States  held  70,000,  that  79,000 
were  held  abroad,  and  that  the  remainder  were  owned 
in  the  following  states  in  the  order  given :  Pennsylvania, 
South  Carolina,  Maryland,  New  York,  and  Massachu¬ 
setts,  while  scarcely  a  share  was  owned  west  of  the 
Appalachians.1 

Webster  was  now  the  champion  of  the  Bank,  the 
South  was  indifferent  and  becoming  hostile  to  it,  while 
to  the  West  it  typified  all  that  the  words  “Wall  Street” 
conveyed  to  the  mind  of  the  Populist  of  1890.  The 
West  was  young,  vigorous,  militant,  and  took  the  lead 
in  the  fight.  Therefore  the  Bank  became  the  principal 
issue  of  the  period. 

It  was  not  difficult  for  the  opponents  of  the  Bank  to 
show  that  it  had  been  conducted  in  a  fraudulent  man¬ 
ner  in  its  very  beginning.2  It  had  entered  politics 
secretly  from  the  first,  and  when  attacked,  threw  off 
the  mask  and  fought  with  the  weapons  that  powerful 
financial  interests  have  always  used  in  a  country  of  uni¬ 
versal  suffrage. 

The  Bank,  in  the  eyes  of  the  debtor  West,  stood  for 
the  whole  hated  creditor  class.  It  had  loaned  heavily 
on  western  mortages,  and  had  foreclosed  many  of  these 
mortgages,  until  it  was  alleged  that  it  owned  great 
tracts  of  farm  and  city  property.3  It  had  favored  the 
Eastern  land  speculator  rather  than  the  actual  settler 

1  J.  Schouler,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  VI,  p.  48. 

2  William  M.  Gouge,  “Short  History  of  Paper  Money  and  Banking,” 
pp.  31—32 ;  Horace  White,  “Money  and  Banking”;  Gustavus  Myers, 
“History  of  Great  American  Fortunes,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  89-90. 

3  T.  Benton,  “Thirty  Years’  View,”  Vol.  I,  p.  198. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850 


207 


in  the  matter  of  loans,  and  had  refused  to  extend  credit 
to  the  residents  of  the  West  as  freely  as  the  state  banks. 
Thus  the  state  banks,  to  whom  the  United  States  Bank 
stood  in  the  relation  of  a  powerful  competitor,  were 
anxious  to  fan  the  antagonism  of  the  frontier. 

The  South  had  favored  western  expansion,  and  was 
now  ready  to  make  an  alliance  with  the  West  in  the 
attack  upon  the  Bank  in  return  for  support  in  reducing 
the  tariff.  In  this  alliance  the  West,  being  the  more 
virile  rising  element,  dominated,  and  Andrew  Jackson, 
who  was  largely  typical  of  the  speculative,  small  farmer 
and  trader  frontier,  became  President.  In  1834  he 
finished  his  fight  upon  the  Bank  by  removing  the  funds 
deposited  with  it  by  the  national  government.  This  so 
crippled  the  Bank  that  it  sank  into  obscurity,  and  failed 
within  a  few  years. 

The  tremendous  flood  of  immigration  to  the  West 
had  been  accompanied,  as  such  movements  have  always 
been,  by  a  wild  speculation  in  land.  Starting  imme¬ 
diately  after  the  panic  of  1819,  this  craze  grew  steadily, 
save  for  a  brief  setback  following  the  withdrawal  of  the 
deposits  from  the  Bank  in  1833-1834,  until  it  climaxed 
and  collapsed  in  the  panic  of  1837.  Shares  in  canals 
and  the  newly  projected  railroads  added  to  the  insanity, 
fanned  still  faster  by  the  willingness  of  the  “ wildcat” 
banks  to  issue  “ scrip”  which  was  accepted  as  payment 
for  public  lands,  until  at  a  time  when  every  one  was  buy¬ 
ing  land,  they  were  all  too  crazy  to  farm,  and  wheat 
was  actually  imported  from  Russia  and  sold  to  land 
speculators  in  the  West  for  $2  a  bushel.1 

1  J.  B.  McMaster,  “History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States,” 
Vol.  VI,  pp.  323-389;  Anon.,  “Eighty  Years’  Progress,”  pp.  147-152. 


208  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

The  income  from  the  sale  of  public  land  leaped  from 
less  than  four  million  dollars  in  1833  to  more  than 
$24,000,000  in  1836.1  The  public  income  was  so  great 
that  a  surplus  accumulated  in  the  United  States  treasury, 
and  was  distributed  to  the  several  states.  In  short, 
there  were  all  the  phenomena  of  inflation  that  precede  a 
competitive  crisis.  Just  as  the  bubble  was  blown  to 
the  bursting  point,  President  Jackson  furnished  the  pin¬ 
prick  that  burst  it  by  issuing  his  famous  “  Specie  Circu¬ 
lar.”  This  simply  stated  that  nothing  but  specie  would 
be  received  in  payment  for  land.  All  the  vast  quantities 
of  bank  notes,  being  no  longer  received  by  the  govern¬ 
ment,  lost  much  of  their  value,  and  the  whole  industrial 
structure  came  tumbling  down. 

Bad  harvests  in  the  wheat  country  and  a  simultaneous 
panic  in  England  completed  the  prostration  of  industry. 
There  were  new  investigations  of  the  cause  of  distress. 
More  charity  societies  were  organized.  The  unemployed 
filled  the  streets.  Mobs  in  New  York  City  stormed  the 
shops  of  those  who  were  alleged  to  have  monopolized 
breadstuff s,  and  destroyed  great  quantities  of  wheat  and 
flour.  The  new  corporation  stocks  set  the  example  that 
has  been  followed  by  generation  after  generation  of 
similar  stocks,  and  promptly  lost  all  value.  Failure  after 
failure  of  banks,  merchants,  and  manufacturers  were 
heralded  in  the  journals.  Prices  of  all  goods  fell  rapidly, 
but  no  one  had  the  means  to  purchase  at  any  price. - 
Specie  payments  were  suspended  by  all  the  banks,  these 
being  the  only  establishments  that,  even  at  this  early 
date,  were  allowed  to  refuse  to  pay  their  debts  and  still 
continue  to  do  business.  As  money  disappeared  from 

1  Donaldson,  “  The  Public  Domain,”  pp.  201-203. 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850  209 

circulation,  all  sorts  of  expedients  were  resorted  to. 
Individuals  issued  scrip,  and  checks  for  subsidiary  coins ; 
and  the  larger  portion  of  the  population,  especially  in 
rural  districts,  relapsed  once  more  to  the  stage  of  barter.1 

Then  came  the  slow  process  of  recovery.  There  was 
a  great  western  movement  of  actual  settlers,  a  slow 
readjustment  of  industry,  a  growing  discontent  which 
found  expression,  as  it  has  so  often  done  since,  by  chang¬ 
ing  political  rulers;  and  then  industry  started  upon 
another  upward  climb  toward  another  plunge  into  the 
depths. 

On  the  basis  of  the  industrial  stage  just  described 
there  developed  a  peculiar  mental  attitude,  and  a  set  of 
social  and  political  principles  and  institutions  that  set 
their  stamp  upon  all  subsequent  history. 

The  common  interpretation  of  this  period  is  that  it 
was  the  rule  of  the  frontier,  and  that  it  was  an  example 
of  perfect  democracy.  There  is  more  than  a  semblance 
of  truth  in  these  statements. 

The  two  largest  elements  of  the  population  that 
possessed  that  sense  of  coming  social  power  which  alone 
gives  the  class  consciousness  necessary  to  effective  action 
were  the  frontiersmen  and  the  wageworkers  of  the  cities. 
The  latter  fired  into  brief  activity,  and  were  then 
swallowed  up  in  other  classes,  largely  in  that  of  the  pio¬ 
neers  of  the  Northwest.  Those  who  remained  at  home 
accepted  the  mental  attitude  of  the  small  manufacturers, 
—  the  rising  bourgeoisie.  Those  who  went  west  de¬ 
veloped  much  the  same  psychology. 

Out  of  this  industrial  condition  sprang  that  peculiar 
thing  that  has  been  called  “ Jacksonian  Democracy.” 

1 J.  B.  McMaster,  loc.  cit .,  Vol.  VI,  Chap.  LXV. 

P 


210  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

It  was  neither  frontier,  nor  wageworking,  nor  even  purely 
capitalist  in  its  mental  make-up.  It  can  be  better  char¬ 
acterized  as  the  “  democracy  of  expectant  capitalists.” 
It  borrowed  something  from  the  frontier.  Its  brutality, 
crudeness,  coarseness,  admiration  for  boorishness  and 
ignorance,  have  been  especially  ascribed  to  the  frontier, 
but  they  belong  equally  well  to  crude,  competitive 
capitalism.  These  were  the  features  that  impressed 
such  foreign  visitors  as  Charles  Dickens,1  Harriet  Mar- 
tineau,2  and  Alexander  De  Tocqueville.3 

It  was  a  society  made  up  of  units  each  of  which  be¬ 
lieved  that  it  was  destined  to  become  rich  and  powerful. 
Its  democracy  was  based  upon  the  idea  of  equality  in 
the  struggle  for  office.  Office  was  considered  as  a  goal 
to  be  fought  for.  Public  office  was  a  private  snap. 
Therefore  it  should  be  passed  around.  Hence  the  per¬ 
nicious  idea  of  rotation  in  office  that  has  cursed  Ameri¬ 
can  politics  until  the  present  time. 

The  only  way  to  secure  office  was  to  deceive  a  ma¬ 
jority  of  the  voters.  Hence  the  deification  of  majorities. 
The  one  idea  which  is  met  with  over  and  over  again  in 
all  the  literature  of  the  period  is  that  the  majority  is 
always  right.  Whoever  could  get  a  majority  of  the 
votes  was  therefore  right.  The  hardest  way  to  get 
majorities  being  through  appeals  to  reason,  that  method 
was  neglected. 

Political  machines,  whose  origin  in  Tammany  Hall  we 
have  already  traced,  now  spread  from  this  germ  until 
they  controlled  the  whole  national  political  field.  The 

1  Charles  Dickens,  “American  Notes.” 

2  Harriet  Martineau,  “Society  in  America”  (1837). 

3  Alexander  De  Tocqueville,  “Democracy  in  America  ”  (1833). 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  —  1830-1850 


21 1 


mad  rush  for  wealth,  the  deification  of  success,  the  fierce 
competition  of  the  early  days  of  capitalism,  combined  to 
make  politics  a  trade.1  The  workers  could  not,  the 
madly  competing  little  capitalists  had  no  time  to,  enter 
politics  directly.  Besides,  the  whole  end  and  aim  of 
life  being  to  make  money,  why  should  not  politics  be 
left  to  individual  initiative  in  the  pursuit  of  profit  ? 

The  national  political  convention,  originating  nomi¬ 
nally  in  a  gathering  of  the  “Anti-Masonic”  party  in 
1820,  first  became  a  national  force  when  Jackson  was 
nominated  in  1828.  By  this  time  Van  Buren,  pupil  of 
Aaron  Burr  and  Tammany,  had  extended  the  system  he 
had  helped  create  in  New  York  City  first  to  the  state 
and  now  to  the  nation. 

This  machine  existed  for  the  purpose  of  getting  ma¬ 
jorities,  and  through  these  the  spoils  of  office.  It  did 
not  try  to  teach  the  voters.  The  more  ignorant  they 
were,  the  easier  to  manage.  Hence  the  exaltation  of 
ignorance,  the  glorification  of  the  “horny  hand,”  that 
has  been  a  part  of  the  stock  in  trade  of  every  demagogue 
to  the  present  day. 

Principles  are  a  distinct  handicap  to  a  political  party 
working  on  these  lines.  Hence  they  are  avoided  as 
much  as  possible.  Personalities  are  emphasized. 
Trickery,  cabals,  bribery,  and  intrigue  are  used  within 
the  party  to  determine  nominations.  After  the  nomi¬ 
nations  are  made,  the  majority  are  to  be  swayed  by 
phrases,  shibboleths,  “blessed  words,”  appeals  to  party 
solidarity,  and  principally  by  infusing  the  multitude  with 
a  sort  of  hypnotic  enthusiasm  and  the  mob  spirit.2 

1  M.  Ostrogorski,  “Democracy  and  the  Organization  of  Political 
Parties,”  Vol.  II,  p.  78.  2  Ostrogorski,  loc.  cit.,  Chap.  II. 


212 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


These  methods  were  first  seized  upon  by  the  Demo¬ 
cratic  party.  By  their  use  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  were 
elected.  Then  others  learned  the  lesson.  Webster  and 
New  England,  shut  out  of  the  Van  Buren- Jackson  political 
combination,  proceeded  to  manufacture  a  machine  of  their 
own,  —  the  Whig  party.  It  never  had  any  principles.1 
The  whole  country  was  so  uniformly  small-capitalist, 
save  in  the  chattel-slave-owning  localities,  whose  in¬ 
terests  were  as  yet  not  challenged,  that  there  was  little 
on  which  politicians  disagreed. 

But  the  Whigs  had,  from  the  start,  greater  resources 
than  the  Jackson  and  Van  Buren  combination.  Henry 
Clay  had  quarreled  with  Jackson  and  gone  over  to  the 
new  party,  and  was  its  logical  candidate.  He  was  cast 
aside  on  the  ground  that,  having  a  public  record,  he  had 
enemies,  and  might  not  be  the  most  available  vote- 
getter.  William  H.  Harrison  was  nominated  instead. 
His  only  claim  to  fame  was  that  he  had  been  a  general 
in  a  successful  battle  against  the  Indians  some  thirty 
years  before.  The  machine  then  proceeded  to  make 
full  use  of  the  new  methods  of  arousing  enthusiasm. 
Enormous  meetings  were  worked  up,  whose  size  was 
measured  by  acres,  and  not  by  the  arguments  presented. 
Monster  processions  passed  through  the  streets  of  the 
cities,  led  by  members  of  Congress  who  came  from  all 
parts  of  the  Union  for  this  purpose.  An  excellent  phrase 
for  the  purpose  of  arousing  the  ignorant,  unthinking 
vote  was  created  for  the  Whigs  when  some  opponent  , 

1  Charles  H.  Peck,  “The  Jacksonian  System,”  p.  420:  “John  Ran¬ 
dolph  once  remarked  that  the  principles  of  the  Whig  party  were  seven 
—  five  loaves  and  two  fishes.  This  sarcasm  contained  much  truth. 
The  party  was  a  heterogeneous  composition.” 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850 


213 


sneeringly  declared  that  Harrison  would  be  content  if  he 
could  sit  in  the  door  of  a  log  cabin  and  drink  hard  cider. 
Although  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  ever  so  sat, 
and  while  he  was,  for  that  time,  a  comparatively  wealthy 
man,  this  phrase  was  seized  upon,  Harrison  became  the 
“ log-cabin  candidate,”  and  was  swept  into  the  highest 
office  in  the  nation. 

Unfortunately  for  the  Whigs,  in  their  anxiety  to 
secure  a  victory  they  had  selected  John  Tyler  for  Vice- 
President.  He  was  more  nearly  a  Democrat  than  a 
Whig  (another  illustration  of  the  disregard  of  principles 
for  expediency);  and  when  Harrison  died  after  a  few 
weeks  in  office,  Tyler  became  President,  and  the  Demo¬ 
crats  were  once  more  in  places  of  power.  Before  Tyler’s 
term  had  expired,  the  long-blurred  class  lines  again 
became  distinct  in  the  field  of  politics.  The  new  divi¬ 
sions  were  wholly  different  from  the  old  ones,  and  were 
along  the  lines  that  were  later  to  lead  to  Civil  War. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  conclude  that  the  democracy 
of  this  period  was  all  a  sham  and  a  cover  for  scheming 
demagogues.  It  did  strike  heavy  blows  at  all  forms  of 
privilege.  It  extended  the  suffrage  and  the  public  school 
system,  and  developed  many  things  that  had  been  set 
in  motion  by  the  labor  movement  of  the  preceding 
period. 

It  was  a  time  of  strange,  erratic,  hysterical,  and  violent 
social  movements.  Antirent  riots  in  New  York  secured 
the  abolition  of  the  remnants  of  the  old  patroon  privileges 
that  had  remained  from  the  days  of  Dutch  control. 
The  anarchistic  competitive  industrial  atmosphere  pro¬ 
duced  extreme  individualism  in  religion,  resulting  in 
hysterical  revivals,  and  the  growth  of  strange  sects  that 


214 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


were  fiercely  persecuted,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Mormons. 
Political  parties  fought  violently  over  strange  issues. 
An  anti-Masonic  party  threatened  to  capture  several  of 
the  Northern  states,  and  was  a  deciding  influence  in  the 
local  politics  for  several  years. 

New  England  stood  a  little  apart  from  this  confusion. 
The  old  commercial  class  had  lost  its  industrial  and  po¬ 
litical  power.  It  was  dying  out  in  a  blaze  of  intellectual 
fireworks,  commonly  known  as  the  “  Transcendental 
movement,”  because  of  its  metaphysical  base.  To  this 
movement  belonged  Emerson  and  Channing  and  Ripley 
and  Thoreau,  and  several  other  of  the  brightest  names 
in  American  literature. 

As  in  Europe,  so  here,  this  small  competitive  stage  of 
capitalism  was  accompanied  by  a  wave  of  communistic 
Utopian  Socialism.  It  was  during  this  period  that 
Brook  Farm  was  established,  Brisbane  was  preaching 
the  gospel  of  Fourier,  and  the  followers  of  Cabet  were 
preparing  to  build  “Icarias”  in  the  new  world,  with 
the  assistance  of  local  sympathizers. 

This  communistic  movement  was  a  natural  outgrowth 
of  the  combination  of  bourgeois  democracy,  New  Eng¬ 
land  liberalism  in  theology,  metaphysical  transcendental¬ 
ism,  and  the  small-capitalist  ideal  of  equality  transmuted 
into  transcendental  phraseology.  All  of  these  things 
were  most  pronounced  in  their  development  in  New 
England.  Elsewhere  there  were  disturbing  currents 
that  prevented  the  appearance  of  this  intellectual  and 
social  efflorescence  of  the  industrial  trunk  of  American 
society. 

The  whole  tendency  of  bourgeois  democracy  and  prim¬ 
itive  communism  is  to  level  down,  not  up;  to  praise  what 


I 


THE  YOUTH  OF  CAPITALISM  — 1830-1850  215 

is  common  to  all,  though  it  be  base  and  degrading,  rather 
than  to  aim  at  building  up  in  the  many  what  at  first 
was  the  property  of  the  few. 

This  political  power  of  the  small  bourgeoisie  was  now 
to  be  momentarily  submerged  in  national  affairs  by  the 
chattel-slave  interests,  then,  after  a  period  of  develop¬ 
ment  and  growth  and  change,  to  seize  the  reins  of  social 
control,  and  wield  them  until  it  handed  them  over  to 
its  legitimate  heirs  in  the  line  of  social  succession. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


WHY  THE  CIVIL  WAR  CAME 

There  are  very  definite  reasons  why  the  Civil  War 
came  at  the  exact  time  it  did,  and  not  a  century  earlier 
or  a  decade  later.  These  reasons  are  not  found  either 
in  the  wickedness  of  chattel  slavery,  nor  the  growing 
moral  consciousness  of  the  North.  It  is  probable  that 
the  slaves  were  as  well,  if  not  better,  treated  in  i860  than 
at  any  time  in  the  history  of  slavery.  They  were  more 
valuable,  and  masters  were  more  interested  in  their  wel¬ 
fare.  It  is  certain  that  the  general  moral  conscience  of 
the  North  had  seldom  been  lower  than  in  the  years  when 
competitive  capitalism  was  gaining  the  mastery  in  Amer¬ 
ican  industrial  life. 

Sectional  antagonism  has_  always  existed  in  the  United 
States,  and  has  many  times  led  to  threats  of  secession. 
New  England  proposed  to  secede  because  of  opposition 
to  the  War  of  1812.  South  Carolina  was  ready  to  leave 
the  Union  to  escape  the  tariff  in  1830,  although  she  had 
favored  a  tariff  little  more  than  ten  years  before.  The 
West  had  repeatedly  threatened  secession  and  intrigued 
for  an  alliance  with  Spain,  and  had  even  taken  steps  to 
organize  a  trans-Allegheny  empire  when  it  felt  itself 
oppressed  by  the  Eastern  states.  It  would  be  hard  to 
find  a  state  a  majority  of  whose  inhabitants  had  not 
at  some  time  prior  to  i860  favored  secession.  Finally, 

216 


WHY  THE  CIVIL  WAR  CAME 


217 


the  Abolitionists  were,  in  the  beginning,  the  most  rabid 
secessionists.  This  fact  should  be  ample  proof  that  the 
Civil  War  was  not  caused  by  a  fervent  love  for  the  a b- 
stract  idea  of  union  and  a  corresponding  hatred..oi.  the 
principle  of  secession.1 

A  series  of  questions  present  themselves  to  any  stu¬ 
dent  of  this  period  that  are  not  answered  by  any  of  the 
conventional  explanations  of  the  cause  of  the  war  be¬ 
tween  the  North  and  the  South.  The  explanation  that 
it  was  caused  by  hostility  to  slavery  fails  to  explain  why 
Wendell  Phillips  and  William  Lloyd  Garrison  were 
mobbed  in  Boston,  and  why  Lovejoy  was  lynched  and 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  sent  to  the  United  States  Senate 
by  the  State  that  furnished  Lincoln.  Neither  does  it 

1  Pollard,  “The  Lost  Cause,”  p.  52  :  “  In  the  North  there  was  never 
any  lack  of  rhetorical  fervor  for  the  Union;  its  praises  were  sung  in 
every  note  of  turgid  literature,  and  it  was  familiarly  entitled  ‘the  glo¬ 
rious.’  But  the  North  worshipped  the  union  in  a  very  low  commercial 
sense,  it  was  a  source  of  boundless  profits;  it  was  productive  of  tariffs 
and  bounties,  and  it  had  been  used  for  years  as  a  means  of  sectional 
aggrandizement.”  The  attitude  of  the  Abolitionists  is  shown  freely 
in  their  literature.  No.  n  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Tracts  is  “Disunion  our 
Wisdom  and  Duty,”  by  Rev.  Charles  E.  Hodges.  It  is  published  by  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and  is  an  argument  for  dissolving  the 
Union.  Wendell  Phillips’  “Speeches,  Lectures  and  Letters,”  Vol.  I,  p.  343 
et  seq.y  containing  his  speech  on  “Disunion,”  delivered  January,  1861,  after 
secession  had  already  taken  place,  contains  these  sentences  :  “‘The  Lord 
reigneth ;  let  the  earth  rejoice.  ’  ‘  The  covenant  with  death  ’  is  annulled ; 

‘the  agreement  with  hell’  is  broken  to  pieces.  The  chain  which  has  held 
the  slave  system  since  1787  is  parted.  Thirty  years  ago  northern  aboli¬ 
tionists  announced  their  purpose  to  seek  the  dissolution  of  the  American 
union.  Who  dreamed  that  success  would  come  so  soon?”  Later,  in 
August,  1862,  Phillips  wrote  a  letter  to  the  New  York  Tribune  in  which 
he  said:  “From  1843  to  1861  I  was  a  disunionist  .  .  .  Sumter  changed 
the  whole  question.  After  that  peace  and  justice  both  forbade  dis¬ 
union.” 


218  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


help  us  to  understand  why  slavery  was  not  a  political 
issue  until  it  suddenly  blazed  into  such  a  fierce  fire,  nor 
why  the  victory  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  nation 
necesiarilyleT  to  civil  war~vdiefrthaT  party  had  never 

suggested  abolition,  and  finally,  why  that  war  should  have 
come  in  spite  of  the  most  earnest  pledges  of  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  Lincoln  that  slavery  would  not  be  disturbed. 

There  is  always  a  tendency  to  read  the  present  into 
the  past,  until  historians  write  as  if  the  people  of  1840 
acted  with  a  full  foreknowledge  of  the  coming  secession, 
Civil  War,  and  emancipation,  if  not  of  negro  enfranchise¬ 
ment  and  reconstruction. 

The  attitude  of  the  various  sections  of  the  country 
toward  chattel  slavery  has~always  been  determined 
directly  by  the  dominant  economic  interests  of  the  .sec¬ 
tion  in  question.  Massachusetts  abolished  slavery  at 
an  early  date,  and  we  have  it  on  the  authority  of  John 
Adams  that:  — 

“Argument  might  have  had  some  weight  in  the  aboli¬ 
tion  of  slavery  in  Massachusetts,  but  the  real  cause 
was  the  multiplication  of  laboring  white  people,  who 
would  not  longer  suffer  the  rich  to  employ  these  sable 
rivals  so  much  to  their  injury.”*  1 

1  A  work  by  a  writer  using  the  name  of  “Barbarossa,”  entitled  “The 
Lost  Principles  of  Sectional  Equilibrium,”  published  in  i860,  has  this 
statement  (p.  39,  note)  :  “In  the  Congress  of  1776  John  Adams  observed 
that  the  number  of  persons  were  taken  by  this  article  (on  taxation)  as 
the  index  of  the  wealth  of  the  state,  and  not  as  subjects  of  taxation. 
That  as  to  this  matter,  it  was  of  no  consequence  by  what  name  you 
called  your  people,  whether  by  that  of  freemen  or  of  slaves.  That  in 
some  countries  the  laboring  poor  were  called  freemen;  in  others  they 
were  called  slaves :  but  that  the  difference  was  imaginary  only.  What 
matters  it  whether  a  landlord  employing  ten  laborers  on  his  farm  gives 
them  annually  as  much  as  will  buy  the  necessaries  of  life,  or  gives  them 


WHY  THE  CIVIL  WAR  CAME 


219 


At  the  time  when  Jackson  was  President  there  were  a 
number  of  Abolitionist  societies,  but  these  were  nearly 
all  in  the  northern  tier  of  'slave-holding  states,  although 
one  or  more  such  societies  could  be  found  in  every  state 
in  the  Union  except  a  few  extreme  Southern  states, 
Indiana,  and  those  of  New  England.1 

About  this  time  sentiment  began  to  change,  and  a  fierce 
hostility  to  Abolitionism  arose,  not  only  in  the  South, 
but  through  almost  the  entire  North,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Middle  Atlantic  states.2  We  find  the  cause  of 
this  in  the  fact  that  the  value  of  the  cotton  crop  raised 
by  slave  labor  was  increasing  as  perhaps  few  crops  have 
ever  increased.3  New  England  was  weaving  this  cotton, 
or  carrying  it  to  foreign  ports,  and  the  Middle  West 
was  supplying  the  food  for  the  slaves  and  farm  animals 
for  the  plantations  upon  which  the  cotton  was  raised. 
Only  in  the  iron  and  steel  manufacturing  region  and  in 
the  district  dependent  upon  the  Great  Lakes  was  there 
developing  a  population  deriving  no  material  benefit 
from  chattel  slavery. 

So  long  as  the  various  sections  of  the  country  were\ 
mutually  complementary  and  not  competitive,  there! 
was  no  deep-seated  antagonism.  “King  Cotton”  and 
“King  Cotton  Goods”  had  no  quarrel  until  their  inter¬ 
ests  began  to  move  in  opposite  directions.  f 

X 

those  necessaries  at  first  hand?”  Williams,  “History  of  the  Negro 
Race  in  America,”  p.  209,  quotes  from  a  report  of  a  committee  appointed 
by  the  Massachusetts  Council  in  1706,  stating  that  negro  slavery  should 
be  abolished  because  “white  servants”  were  cheaper  and  more  profitable 
to  the  colony. 

1  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  “Slavery  and  Abolition,”  p.  161. 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  245-246. 

3  Charles  H.  Peck,  “The  Jacksonian  Epoch,”  p.  268. 


220 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


There  was  a  series  of  these  antagonistic  interests 
that  culminated  about  i860,  any  one  of  which  might  have 
produced  a  civil  war,  all  of  which  could  scarcely  avoid 
causing  an  armed  conflict. 

There  was  a  conflict  of  territory.  Both  the_:wage 
system  andTEattel  slavery  require  constant  expansion. 
When  the  wave  of  population  crossed  the  Mississippi 
and  began  to  climb  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Rockies,  a 
struggle  arose  over  the  question  of  which  system  should 
possess  the  level  plains  that  lay  on  the  border  between 
the  two  social  systems.  Then  came  the  “Nebraska 
War/’  the  “Missourijgompromise,”  and  “Bloody  Kan¬ 
sas.”  The  system  of  small  capitalism  required  that  land 
should  be  divided  into  small  freeholds  and  distributed 
to  settlers  in  the  form  of  homesteads.  Chattel  slavery 
demanded  auction  sales  of  great  strips  for  plantations. 

Theorise  of  the  factory  system  and  the  coming  of  for¬ 
eign  immigration,  with  the  development  of  cities,  all  a 
part  of  the  society  based  upon  the  wage  system,  created 
a  social  and  individual  psychology  so  wholly  different 
from  that  based  upon  chattel  slavery  as  to  be  sure  to 
give  rise  to  mutual  distrust  and  hostility.  This  social 
system  could  not  arise  in  the  North  until  factory  pro¬ 
duction  and  railroad  transportation  had  given  a  unity 
to  its  social  life. 

The  South  had  to  learn  that  chattel  slavery  was  largely 
confined  to  the  cotton  belt,  and  that  therefore  it  could 
never  hope  to  rival  in  size  and  power  the  wage-slave 
territory,  which  had  no  narrow  geographical  bonds.  It 
was  to  try  to  force  itself  and  its  system  into  new  territories 
until  further  expansion  was  almost  impossible  before  it 
realized  the  existence  of  an  “inevitable  conflict.” 


WHY  THE  CIVIL  WAR  CAME 


221 


Even  more  significant  than  any  of  these,  although  to 
a  large  extent  growing  out  of  them,  was  the  antagonism 
arising  from  the  attempt  of  the  two  social  systems  to 
use  the  national  government  in  opposite  ways  for  the 
furtherance  of  their  respective  interests.  During  the 
period  prior  to  1850  this  need  was  not  sharply  felt  by 
either  section.  This  largely  accounts  for  the  political 
chaos,  and  utter  lack  of  even  a  semblance  of  principles  in 
national  elections.  Both  the  Whig  and  the  Democrat 
parties,  in  the  generation  prior  to  the  above  date,  had 
sought  only  to  win  offices,  and  had  represented  no  clear 
class  interests  of  national  scope. 

As  Northern  capitalism  grew  stronger,  wider  in  its 
scope,  more  definite  in  its  objects,  more  united  in  its 
interests,  more  in  need  of  national  action  to  protect  these 
interests  both  at  home  and  abroad,  it  developed  a  polit¬ 
ical  party  to  express  those  interests.  That  party 
found  itself  in  sharp  opposition  to  the  interests  of  the 
system  based  upon  chattel  slavery. 

When  that  party  obtained  control  of  the  national 
government,  the  chattel  slave  interests,  realizing  that 
no  social  system  can  hope  to  prosper  within  a  govern¬ 
ment  which  it  does  not  control,  felt  that  secession  was 
necessary. 

The  growth  of  these  divergent  and  antagonistic 
interests  and  their  clash  for  power  will  be  the  subject 
of  the  next  three  chapters. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM 

Internally  the  industrial  society  based  upon  the 
plantation  system  and  chattel  slavery  was  near  to  a  crisis 
by  i860.  This  society,  first  established  on  the  sea¬ 
board  for  the  production  of  tobacco,  indigo,  and  rice, 
maintained  its  general  form  as  it  moved  across  the 
country.  In  each  successive  stage  of  the  westward 
march  it  followed  the  hunter  and  small  farmer  stage, 
and  there  was  a  brief  struggle  between  these  two  systems 
for  supremacy.1 

Soil  and  climate  determined  the  outcome  of  this  con¬ 
flict.  There  was  a  definite  belt  of  land  where  upland 
cotton  could  be  raised.2  Where  this  belt  broke  against 
the  foot  of  the  mountains,  cotton  and  slavery  stopped, 
and  the  whole  character  of  the  population  changed.3 
Because  those  engaged  in  the  production  of  cotton  in 
this  comparatively  small  portion  of  the  soil  were  the 
industrial,  political,  and  social  rulers  of  the  South,  it  is 
the  portion  which  is  commonly  referred  to  when  the 
antebellum  South  is  named. 

1  U.  B.  Phillips,  “Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Southern  Black  Belts,” 
in  American  Historical  Review,  July,  1906. 

2  Wm.  G.  Brown,  “The  Lower  South  in  American  History,”  pp. 
25-26. 

3  W.  A.  Schaper,  “Sectionalism  and  Representation  in  South  Caro¬ 
lina,”  Am.  Hist.  Ass’n  Rept.,  1900,  Vol.  I,  p.  253,  et  passim. 


222 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  223 

Although  the  statement  is  frequently  made  that  the 
plantation  system  had  remained  unchanged  for  more 
than  a  century,1  there  were  some  important  alterations 
in  the  generation  preceding  the  Civil  War. 

Chattel  slavery  and  the  plantation  system  could  be 
maintained  only  in  connection  with  an  industry  having 
certain  characteristics.  Such  an  industry  must  be 
extremely  simple  in  its  operation,  requiring  few  pro¬ 
cesses  and  no  complex  machinery.  Because  slavery  is 
applicable  only  to  a  “one-crop”  system  of  agriculture,  it 
demands  an  exhaustless  supply  of  new  and  fertile  lands 
that  can  be  brought  into  cultivation  as  the  old  ones  are 
exhausted.  Because  the  slave  represents  a  permanent 
investment  on  the  part  of  the  master,  and  must  be  sup¬ 
ported  continuously,  without  regard  to  the  continuity 
of  industry,  it  is  essential  that  employment  be  steady. 
Cotton  cultivation  with  ginning  occupied  the  slaves  for 
nearly  nine  months  in  the  year  —  longer  than  almost 
any  other  crop. 

The  supplies  in  which  the  slave  receives  his  wages 
should  not  be  costly.  Otherwise  wage  labor  would  be 
cheaper.  The  warm  climate  of  the  South  relieved  the 
master  of  the  necessity  of  providing  anything  but  the 
cheapest,  coarsest  clothing  and  food,  and  a  miserable 
shelter. 

Slaves  must  be  worked  in  large  gangs  under  a  common 
overseer.  The  cultivation  and  picking  of  cotton  again 
made  this  possible.2 

The  same  internal  compulsion  that  leads  to  concentra- 

1  E.  L.  Bogart,  “Economic  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  251. 

2  M.  B.  Hammond,  “The  Cotton  Industry,”  Pub.  Am.  Econ.  Ass’nf 
Vol.  I,  No.  1,  pp.  34-66. 


224 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


tion  in  modern  industry  operated  with  the  production 
of  cotton.  To  this  compulsion  was  added  the  fact  that 
the  extension  of  land  ownership  for  the  great  planta¬ 
tions  literally  drove  the  defeated  competitors  off  the 
earth.  As  the  system  approached  its  conclusion,  the 
number  of  its  beneficiaries  grew  fewer  and  fewer,  more 
and  more  powerful,  more  defiant  and  arrogant,  more 
greedy  for  rulership. 

By  i860,  not  more  than  half  a  million  of  the  nine  mil¬ 
lion  Southern  whites  made  an  actual  profit  from  chattel 
slavery.  Out  of  this  half  million  was  further  selected 
not  more  than  ten  thousand,  who  were  the  economic, 
social,  and  political  rulers  of  the  South.1  The  problem 
that  confronted  these  few  rulers  was  to  maintain  their 
dominant  position  under  universal  white  suffrage.  They 
were  aided  by  the  fact  that  the  clergy  and  the  profes¬ 
sional  men  were  with  them.  This  was  due  partly  to  the 
fact  that  the  more  successful  members  of  this  class  usu¬ 
ally  owned  one  or  two  slaves  for  personal  service.  This 

1  A.  B.  Hart,  “Slavery  and  Abolition,”  p.  68  ;  Edward  Ingle,  “  South¬ 
ern  Side  Lights,”  p.  263;  Brown,  “The  Lower  South  in  American  His¬ 
tory,”  p.  34.  Hinton  Rowan  Helper,  “The  Impending  Crisis,”  p.  146, 


gives  this  table  for  1850 :  — 

Holders  of  1  slave . 68,820 

Holders  of  1  and  under  5 . 105,683 

Holders  of  5  and  under  10 . 80,765 

Holders  of  10  and  under  20 . 54,595 

Holders  of  20  and  under  50 . 29,733 

Holders  of  50  and  under  100 .  6,196 

Holders  of  100  and  under  200 .  1,479 

Holders  of  200  and  under  300 .  187 

Holders  of  300  and  under  500 .  56 

Holders  of  500  and  under  1000 .  9 

Holders  of  1000  and  over  .  2 


Aggregate  number  of  slaveholders  in  United  States.  .  .  .  347,525 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  225 

created  a  class  of  social  retainers  who  defended  the 
interest  of  the  ruling  class.  Always  there  is  a  large 
section  of  society  that  follows  the  leaders  and  defends 
the  interests  of  those  leaders  more  energetically  than  its 
own. 

The  slave  oligarchy  in  the  South  was  well  aware  of 
the  uncertainty  of  social  rule  by  a  minority,  and  com¬ 
forted  themselves  with  the  conclusion  that  “The  pro¬ 
portion  which  the  slaveholders  of  the  South  bear  to  the 
entire  population  is  greater  than  that  of  the  owners  of 
land  or  houses,  agricultural  stock,  state,  bank,  or  other 
corporation  securities  elsewhere. ” 1  Until  the  verge 
of  the  Civil  War  the  majority  of  the  non-slave-owning 
whites  were  firm  in  their  allegiance  to  their  slave-own¬ 
ing  rulers.  Indeed,  Von  Holst  claims  that  “It  was 
precisely  the  poorest  and  most  abject  whites  who  found 
the  greatest  satisfaction  for  their  self-love  in  the  thought 
that  they  were  members  of  the  privileged  class.  He 
who  wished  to  span  the  broad  gulf  that  separated  them 
from  the  slaves,  or  was  suspected  of  entertaining  this 
wish,  was  their  deadly  enemy,  for  he  threatened  to  expose 
them  in  all  their  neediness,  defenseless  and  naked;  he 
disputed  their  ‘  right’  to  the  beggarly  pomp  that  was  due 
only  to  the  deeper  degradation  of  others ;  and  he  there¬ 
fore  trespassed  upon  their  ‘ freedom.’  ”  2 

Representatives  of  the  Southern  ruling  class  were 
fond  of  taunting  those  who  lived  under  the  wage  system 
with  the  security  of  a  society  based  on  chattel  slavery 

1  J.  D.  B.  DeBow,  “The  Non-Slave-Holders  of  the  South,”  in  DeBow's 
Review ,  1861,  p.  68. 

2  Von  Holst,  “Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  I, 
PP-  349-350- 

Q 


226  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


as  compared  with  one  depending  upon  hired  laborers. 
They  were  continually  boasting  of  the  fact  that  chattel 
slavery  made  any  uprising  of  the  workers  impossible.  As 
one  writer  put  it,  “There  is  perhaps  no  solution  of  the 
great  problem  of  reconciling  the  interests*  of  labor  and 
capital,  so  as  to  protect  each  from  the  encroachments 
and  oppression  of  the  other,  so  simple  and  effective  as 
negro  slavery.  By  making  the  laborer  himself  capital, 
the  conflict  ceases,  and  the  interests  become  identical.”  1 

But  no  such  simple  solution  of  class  struggles  is  possible. 
The  negro  refused  to  be  entirely  contented  in  his  slavery, 
and  the  imagination  of  the  white  owners,  reading  into 
the  slave’s  mind  an  even  greater  unrest  than  existed, 
painted  horrible  pictures  of  impending  slave  insurrec¬ 
tions,  until  these  became  the  social  nightmare  of  the 
South.  This  fear,  which  kept  the  entire  South  in  a  state 
of  hysterical  apprehension,  was  a  strong  factor  in  creat¬ 
ing  the  sentiment  for  secession.  Only  under  a  national 
government  controlled  by  slave  owners  could  the  South 
sleep  secure  in  the  feeling  that  all  efforts  to  incite  such 

1  Thomas  R.  R.  Cobb,  “Historical  Sketch  of  Slavery  ”  (1858),  p.  214 ; 
Frank  E.  Chadwick,  “Causes  of  the  Civil  War”  (Am.  Nation  Series), 
pp.  41-42.  E.  Von  Holst,  “Life  of  J.  C.  Calhoun,”  p.  175,  quotes  as 
follows  from  a  speech  of  Calhoun’s  :  “  I  fearlessly  assert  that  the  existing 
relations  between  the  two  races  in  the  South  .  .  .  forms  the  most  solid 
and  desirable  foundation  on  which  to  rear  free  and  stable  political  insti¬ 
tutions.  It  is  useless  to  disguise  the  fact.  There  is,  and  always  has 
been,  in  an  advanced  stage  of  wealth  and  civilization,  a  conflict  between 
labor  and  capital.  The  condition  of  society  in  the  South  exempts  us 
from  the  disorders  and  dangers  resulting  from  this  conflict ;  and  explains 
why  it  is  that  the  condition  of  the  slaveholding  states  has  been  so  much 
more  stable  and  quiet  than  that  of  the  North.  The  advantages  of  the 
former  in  this  respect  will  become  more  and  more  manifest  if  left  undis¬ 
turbed  by  interference  from  without,  as  the  country  advances  in  wealth 
and  numbers.” 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  227 

insurrections  would  be  sternly  suppressed.  We  now  know 
that  this  terror  was  largely  self-inspired.  The  negroes 
did  not  rise  when  opportunity  offered. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  poor  whites  were  showing  un¬ 
mistakable  signs  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  rule  of  the 
plantation  barons.  The  propertyless  whites  were  in  a 
most  helpless  and  abject  state  of  industrial,  social,  and 
political  dependence.  They  were  permitted  no  share 
in  the  government,  were  shut  out  from  the  industrial 
life  of  the  South,  and  were  the  despised  hangers-on  in  the 
social  world.  To  the  north  they  saw  the  members  of 
their  class  attaining  to  social  and  political  rulership, 
and  they  began  to  move  beneath  the  foundations  of 
Southern  society. 

By  1850  DeBow,  the  great  literary  spokesman  of 
Southern  sentiment,  was  beginning  to  urge  upon  the 
plantation  owners  the  necessity  of  finding  some  employ¬ 
ment  for  the  poor  whites.  “The  great  mass  of  our  poor 
white  population,”  he  says,  “begin  to  understand  that 
they  have  rights,  and  that  they,  too,  are  entitled  to  some 
of  the  sympathy  which  falls  upon  the  suffering.  They 
are  fast  learning  that  there  is  an  almost  infinite  world 
of  industry  opening  before  them,  by  which  they  can 
elevate  themselves  and  their  families  from  wretchedness 
and  ignorance  to  competence  and  intelligence.  It  is 
this  great  upheaving  of  our  masses  that  we  are  to  fear , 
so  far  as  our  institutions  are  concerned .”  1 

In  1856  George  M.  Weston  published  a  book  entitled 
“The  Poor  Whites  of  the  South.”  He  described  the 
industrial  and  physical  and  mental  degradation  of  this 

1  Editorial  in  DeBow’ s  Review  (1850),  Vol.  VIII,  p.  25.  Italics  in 

original. 


2  28  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


class,  as  well  as  their  political  insignificance.  “I  have 
been  for  twenty  years  a  reader  of  southern  newspapers, 
and  a  hearer  of  Congressional  debates,”  he  says,  “but 
in  all  that  time,  I  do  not  recollect  ever  to  have  seen  or 
heard  these  non-slave-holding  whites  referred  to  by 
southern  gentlemen  as  constituting  any  part  of  what  they 
call  ‘  The  South.’  ”  1 

Finally,  in  1856,  there  came  a  book  which  voiced  the 
interests  and  the  demands  of  this  class  in  such  thunderous 
tones  that  it  shook  the  weakening  pillars  of  Southern 
society  like  reeds,  and  had  very  much  more  to  do  with 
bringing  on  the  Civil  War  than  did  the  much  talked- 
about  “Uncle  Tom’s  Cabin.”  This  book  was  Hinton 
Rowan  Helper’s  “The  Impending  Crisis.” 

Reading  this  book  to-day,  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
its  effect  when  published.  It  is  composed  largely  of 
cold  statistical  proof  that  chattel  slavery  was  hindering 
the  progress  of  Southern  society.  Page  after  page  of 
comparisons  between  the  North  and  the  South  are  given. 
In  every  instance  the  North  has  far  outstripped  the 
South  in  wealth.  This  tempting  vision  of  the  flesh- 
pots  of  profits  from  wage  labor  was  dangled  before  the 
eyes  of  the  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the  South;  and  the 
burden  of  the  book,  though  never  expressed  directly, 
is:  “But  for  chattel  slavery  you  might  be  enjoying  the 
things  upon  which  your  fellow  little  bourgeoisie  in  the 
North  are  fattening.”  Helper  shows  how  much  faster 
Northern  cities  have  grown,  how  much  more  valuable 
is  Northern  land,  both  agricultural  and  urban,  how  in  the 
North  more  railroads  are  built,  more  patents  obtained, 
more  ships  are  sailed;  how,  in  short,  there  were  more 

1  George  M.  Weston,  “The  Poor  Whites  of  the  South”  (1856).^ 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  229 

of  all  the  things  that  are  the  gods  of  the  class  of  little 
capitalists  to  which  the  poor  whites  longed  to  belong, 
and  to  which,  by  the  laws  of  social  evolution,  they  should 
have  been  tending. 

Helper  taunts  the  non-slaveholders  with  the  contempt 
in  which  they  are  held  by  the  slave  owners.1  He  says 
of  the  poor  whites:  “They  have  never  yet  had  any  part 
or  lot  in  framing  the  laws  under  which  they  live.  There 
is  no  legislation  except  for  the  benefit  of  slavery  and 
slaveholders.  ...  To  all  intents  and  purposes,  they  are 
disfranchised,  and  outlawed,  and  the  only  privilege 
extended  to  them  is  a  shallow  and  circumscribed  par¬ 
ticipation  in  the  political  movements  that  usher  slave¬ 
holders  into  office.”  2  He  shows  them  how  mercilessly 
the  great  plantations  are  devouring  the  small  farms  and 
leaving  the  country  a  wilderness  when  the  soil  has  been 
exhausted.3  He  tabulates  the  offices  controlled  by  the 
slavocracy  since  the  foundation  of  the  government,  and 
shows  that  during  nearly  all  of  that  time  the  presidency, 
vice-presidency,  speakership  of  the  House,  Supreme 
Court,  and  the  Cabinet  have  been  filled  with  representa¬ 
tives  of  this  small  class  of  slave  owners.4 

From  first  to  last  he  bases  his  case  upon  the  material 
interest  of  the  class  he  is  seeking  to  arouse,  and  points 
that  the  way  out  is  to  use  political  power  in  the  further¬ 
ance  of  class  interests,  exactly  as  the  slaveholders  have 
been  doing. 

The  publication  of  this  book  exposed  the  Achilles’ 
heel  of  the  South.  It  was  greeted  with  a  perfect  explo¬ 
sion  of  denunciation.  Southern  postmasters  refused  to 

1  Hinton  Rowan  Helper,  “The  Impending  Crisis,”  p.  41. 

*  Ibid. ,  p.  42.  3  Ibid.,  pp.  57-58.  4  Ibid.,  pp.  307-317. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


deliver  it.  Great  bonfires  were  made  of  such  copies 
as  could  be  found  in  the  South.  Ownership  of  a  copy 
in  a  Southern  state  was  to  invite  mob  violence.1  Because 
John  Sherman  was  reported  to  have  contributed  to  a 
fund  for  its  circulation,  he  was  defeated  for  the  speaker- 
ship  of  the  House  of  Representatives.2 

There  was  but  one  way  to  meet  this  situation,  and 
retain  the  allegiance  of  the  poor  whites  for  slavery.  That 
was  to  introduce  capitalism  into  the  South  alongside 
of  the  plantation  system.  This  sounds  almost  grotesque. 
It  was  the  only  hope  of  escape,  and  was  so  recognized 
by  the  class-conscious  slave  owners. 

The  most  strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  introduce 
manufacturing.  “In  Alabama  .  .  .  there  was  a  sort 
of  frenzy  over  railroads  in  the  early  fifties.”  3  State 
and  local  societies  and  “Institutes  for  the  Promotion 
of  Art,  Mechanical  Ingenuity,  Industry,  and  Manu¬ 
factures  in  the  South  ”  were  formed.  Before  the  South 
Carolina  society  of  this  name  one  William  Gregg  made 
an  impassioned  plea  to  the  South  not  to  content  itself 
“to  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the  Northern  States 
and  the  balance  of  the  manufacturing  world,  that 
Ireland,  poor  Ireland,  does  to  England  —  hewers  of 

1  John  Spencer  Bassett,  “  Anti-Slave  Leaders  of  North  Carolina,”  in 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  History  and  Political  Science , 
p.  IS* 

2  Ibid.,  pp.  17-18. 

3  Wm.  G.  Brown,  “The  Lower  South  in  American  History,”  pp. 
95-96.  A  few  years  ago  press  reports  stated  that  Hinton  R.  Helper 
was  found  dead  on  a  bench  in  a  Washington,  D.C.,  park.  There  is  a 
grim  irony  in  the  fact  that  the  man  who  was  largely  responsible  for  the 
vast  financial  and  political  power  of  American  capitalists  should  have 
died  an  outcast. 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  23I 

wood  and  drawers  of  water.”  1  He  proceeds  to  urge 
the  establishment  of  manufactures  for  the  especial  benefit 
of  a  large  portion  of  our  “poor  white  people,  who  are 
wholly  neglected,  and  are  suffered  to  while  away  an 
existence  but  one  step  in  advance  of  the  Indian  of  the 
forest.”  2  Yet  while  he  is  planning  an  opportunity  for 
these  poor  whites  to  become  wageworkers,  he  is  not 
blind  to  the  fact  that  the  presence  of  chattel  slavery 
will  permit  the  plantation  class  to  retain  their  social 
leadership,  since  “capital  will  be  able  to  control  labor, 
even  in  manufacture  with  whites,  for  blacks  can  always 
be  resorted  to  in  case  of  need.”  3 

These  efforts  to  establish  manufactures  were  not 
wholly  in  vain.  Numerous  factories  using  either  white 
wage  or  negro  chattel  slave  labor  were  running  in  the 
years  just  prior  to  the  Civil  War,  and  were  greatly 
boasted  by  the  Southern  spokesmen.4  But  the  two 
systems  of  industry  could  not  exist  side  by  side.  The 
demands  which  they  made  upon  government  were  dif¬ 
ferent.  The  social  classes  which  they  raised  to  power 
were  antagonistic.  The  effort  to  create  manufactures 
with  wage  labor  alongside  of  plantation  agriculture 
operated  by  chattel  slaves  was  only  a  sign  of  the  dis¬ 
integration  of  the  latter  system. 

1  DeBow's  Review,  Vol.  II  (1851),  Address  of  William  Gregg  before 
the  South  Carolina  Institute  for  the  Promotion  of  Art,  Mechanical 
Ingenuity,  Industry,  and  Manufactures  in  South  Carolina  and  the 
South,  p.  127. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  135.  3  Ibid.,  p.  130. 

4  Ingle,  “Southern  Side  Lights,”  pp.  75-83  ;  DeBow,  “Industrial 

Resources  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States,”  Supplement  to  DeBow’s 
Review,  Vol.  II  (1846),  pp.  230-231 ;  ibid.,  p.  332 ;  Thomas  P.  Kettel, 
“Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits,”  pp.  53-62/ 


232 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


The  germs  of  disintegration  were  within  the  very 
elements  that  seemed  to  indicate  the  greatest  prosperity 
for  the  chattel  slave  system  of  production.  The  friends 
of  this  system  rested  their  case  upon  the  domination  of 
cotton.  As  the  demand  for  cotton  increased,  the  slave 
system  seemed  more  firmly  entrenched. 

The  following  table  gives  the  principal  statistical 
facts  in  the  growth  of  the  Southern  industrial  system : — • 


Year 

Value  of  all 
Products 

Value  of  Cotton 

Number  of 
Slaves 

Value  of  all 
Products 
per  Slave 

1800 

$5,252,000 

893,041 

$l6.IO 

l8lO 

28,255,000 

15,108,000 

1,191,364 

19.50 

1820 

37,934,111 

26,309,000 

1,543,688 

24.63 

1830 

45,225,838 

34,084,883 

2,009,053 

22.00 

1840 

92,292,260 

74,640,307 

2,487,355 

37-11 

1850 

130,556,050 

101,334,616 

3,I79>5°9 

43-5i 

1851 

165,084,517 

i37,3i5, 3J7 

3,200,000 

51.90 

At  first  sight  this  would  seem  to  show  swiftly  rising 
prosperity  for  the  slave  owners.  But  there  is  an  inherent 
contradiction  in  chattel  slavery,  as  within  the  competitive 
system,  and  this  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  society 
that  chattel  slavery,  on  a  large  scale,  had  entered  into 
the  competitive  system.  This  is  the  peculiarity:  the 
increased  productivity  of  the  slave,  or  the  increased 
profits  from  his  employment,  are  constantly  capitalized 
and  absorbed  in  the  ever  increasing  value  of  the  slave.1 

1  Daniel  R.  Goodloe,  “Is  it  Expedient  to  Introduce  Slavery  into 
Kansas?”  p.  50:  “The  cultivation  of  land  by  slave  labor  requires  a 
five-fold  greater  outlay  of  capital  than  is  necessary  with  the  use  of  free 
labor.  The  employer  of  slave  labor  must  not  only  have  the  land,  houses, 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  ^33 


Since  the  yearly  earnings  in  the  most  profitable  indus¬ 
try  where  slaves  were  employed  were  thus  capitalized 
and  applied  to  the  price  of  all  slaves,  the  price  rose  in 
a  most  astonishing  manner.  This  tendency  was  still 
further  aggravated  by  the  restrictions  upon  the  foreign 
slave  trade,  which  prevented  the  importation  of  any  save 
those  that  could  be  smuggled  past  the  watchful  revenue 
cruisers.  Consequently  the  price  rose  from  less  than 
$150  in  1808  to  between  two  and  four  thousand  dollars  for 
field  hands  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  war.1 

At  these  prices  only  the  largest  plantations,  working 
the  slaves  in  the  most  effective  manner  upon  the  richest 
lands,  raising  the  most  profitable  crops,  could  survive. 
It  had  become  a  common  saying  that  the  slave  owner 
grew  more  cotton  to  get  more  money  to  buy  more  slaves, 
to  raise  more  cotton,  and  so  on  in  an  endless  and  ever 
rising  spiral. 

^  This  development,  combined  with  the  exhaustive 
one-crop  system  of  farming,  drove  the  slave  owner  on 
toward  the  extreme  south  and  west.  A  moving  picture 

fences,  cattle,  provisions,  etc.,  which,  the  employing  of  free  labor  requires, 
but  in  addition  he  must  own  a  slave,  worth  from  $800  to  $1000,  for  every 
twenty  acres  of  land  which  he  proposes  to  cultivate.” 

1  Kettel,  “Southern  Wealth  and  Northern  Profits,”  p.  171.  “The 
Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  Society,”  Vol.  II,  pp. 
73-74,  quotes  from  the  Milledgeville,  Ga.,  Federal  Union  of  Jan.  17, 
i860,  as  follows:  “Men  are  borrowing  money  at  exorbitant  rates  of 
interest  to  buy  negroes  at  exorbitant  prices.  .  .  .  The  old  rule  of 
pricing  a  negro  by  the  price  of  cotton  by  the  pound  —  that  is  to  say,  if 
cotton  is  worth  twelve  cents,  a  negro  man  is  worth  $1200,  if  at  fifteen 
cents,  then  $1500  —  does  not  seem  to  be  regarded.  Negroes  are  25 
per  cent  higher  now  with  cotton  at  ten  and  one-half  cents  than  they 
were  two  or  three  years  ago,  when  it  was  worth  fifteen  and  sixteen  cents. 
Men  are  demented  upon  the  subject.  A  reverse  will  surely  come.” 
M.  B.  Hammond,  “The  Cotton  Industry,”  pp.  50-51. 


234 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


of  the  black  population  of  the  South  and  its  white  owners 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  chattel  slavery  would  suggest 
some  thick  dark  fluid  flowing  toward  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.1 
Thus  the  South  became  divided  into  the  “slave-using” 
and  the  “slave-breeding”  states.  Virginia  and  Mary¬ 
land  were  the  two  great  sources  of  the  slave  supply, 
from  whence  the  “coffles”  of  slaves  were  gathered  by 
the  buyers  to  be  shipped  to  the  sugar  and  cotton  plan¬ 
tations  further  south.2  It  was  not  profitable  to  keep 
slaves  in  the  border  states  except  for  breeding  purposes, 
and  there  was  somewhat  of  a  sentiment  against  this. 
Therefore  the  number  of  slaves  in  the  border  states 
steadily  decreased  in  numbers. 

There  were  at  least  two  elements  of  disintegration 
added  by  this  movement  to  the  already  crumbling  fabric 
of  chattel  slavery.  The  conflict  of  interest  which  always 
exists  between  buyers  and  sellers  arose  between  these 
two  sections  of  the  South.  This  showed  itself  in  the 
agitation  for  the  reopening  of  the  foreign  slave  trade  on 
the  part  of  the  slave-using  states.  This  was  urged  in 
the  hope  of  lowering  the  price  of  slaves  and  thereby 
preventing  the  collapse  of  slavery  by  the  absorption 
of  all  profits  in  the  values  of  the  laborers.3  It  was  also 
urged  that  such  a  reduction  in  price  would  enable  the 
chattel  slave  owners  to  compete  with  the  wage  system 
in  the  settlement  of  new  territory  to  the  west.4 

1  James  Baker,  essay  on  American  Slavery  in  North  American  Review , 
October,  1851,  p.  12  ;  Hammond,  “The  Cotton  Industry,”  pp.  50-51. 

2  James  F.  W.  Johnson,  “Notes  on  North  America”  (1851),  Vol.  II, 
PP-  354-355- 

3  George  Fitzhugh,  “  The  Wealth  of  the  North  and  South,”  in  De- 
Bow's  Review ,  Vol.  XXIII  (1857),  p.  592. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  594  :  “The  revival  of  the  African  slave  trade,  the  reduction 
in  the  price  of  negroes,  and  the  increase  of  their  numbers,  will  enable  us 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  235 


When  this  proposition  to  reopen  the  slave  trade  was 
brought  up  in  one  of  the  many  trade  conventions  that 
were  held  in  the  South  during  the  years  from  1850  to 
i860,  the  opposition  of  the  slave-breeding  states,  who 
were  profiting  by  the  high  price  of  slaves,  was  so  great 
that  the  resolution  on  this  point  was  finally  dropped 
“  because  the  resolution  was  impolitic  as  affecting  the 
interests  of  such  states  as  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Mis¬ 
souri,  and  North  Carolina.”  1 

Another  great  weakness  of  the  chattel  slave  and  plan¬ 
tation  system  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  was  so  completely 
dependent  upon  other  societies.  It  was  always  a  debtor 
society,  unable  to  market  its  crop  without  the  ships  and 
mills  of  New  and  old  England.  It  had  but  one  crop  to 
bring  to  market,  and  brought  this  in  the  raw  stage.  Then, 
as  now,  the  greatest  profits  went  to  those  who  controlled 
the  later  stages  of  production.  Whenever  the  interests 
of  these  two  stages  of  society  conflicted,  the  advantage 
was  all  with  the  one  representing  the  later  industrial 
epoch.  One  of  the  points  where  this  clash  came  was  on 
the  tariff  question,  and  the  first  and  some  of  the  sharpest 
conflicts  between  the  capitalist  North  and  the  semi- 
feudal  South  were  on  this  question.2  Just  why  this 

successfully  to  contend  in  the  establishment  of  new  territories  with  the 
vast  emigration  from  the  North.” 

1  Ingle,  “Southern  Side  Lights,”  p.  250. 

2  E.  Von  Holst,  “Life  of  J.  C.  Calhoun,”  pp.  75-76;  An  American, 
“Cotton  is  King,”pp.  64-81.  On  p.  67  of  this  work,  which  was  one  of 
the  most  commonly  circulated  books  by  the  defenders  of  the  South, 
the  position  of  that  section  is  summed  up  as  follows:  “If  they  [the 
Southern  planters]  could  establish  free  trade,  it  would  insure  the  American 
market  to  foreign  manufacturers ;  secure  foreign  markets  for  their  lead¬ 
ing  staple;  repress  home  manufactures;  force  a  larger  number  of  the 
northern  men  into  agriculture;  multiply  the  growth  and  diminish  the 


236  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


clash  was  particularly  sharp  about  i860  will  be  pointed 
out  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  absolute  need  for  territorial  expansion  by  a  one- 
crop  society  was  bringing  the  South  into  another  cul 
de  sac .  With  the  national  government  completely  in  its 
control,  it  was  able  to  force  the  annexation  of  Texas 
and  a  large  extent  of  other  territory  after  an  almost 
unprovoked  war  with  Mexico.1  At  the  same  time  a 
large  amount  of  territory  in  the  northwest  to  which  the 
title  of  the  United  States  was  fairly  clear  was  surrendered 
almost  without  a  protest.2 

The  bounds  of  possible  expansion  were  soon  reached, 
so  far  as  continental  America  was  concerned.  Much 
of  the  land  which  was  obtained  in  the  war  with  Mexico 
was  closed  to  chattel  slavery  by  the  ever  encroaching 
wage  labor  society  to  the  north.  The  South  in  des¬ 
peration  turned  to  the  tropical  countries  and  islands 
further  south.  They  talked  in  terms  of  a  “  manifest 
destiny”  that  was  driving  them  on  to  the  possession 
of  Cuba  and  the  valley  of  the  Amazon.3  Envious  eyes 

price  of  provisions ;  feed  and  clothe  their  slaves  at  lower  rates ;  produce 
their  cotton  for  a  third  or  fourth  of  former  prices ;  rival  all  other  countries 
in  its  cultivation;  monopolize  the  trade  in  the  article  throughout  the 
whole  of  Europe ;  and  build  up  a  commerce  and  a  navy  that  would  make 
us  the  rulers  of  the  seas.” 

1 E.  Von  Holst,  “Life  of  J.  C.  Calhoun,”  pp.  220-259,  237 : 
“  Because  the  slave-holding  states  thought  their  peculiar  institution  en¬ 
dangered  by  the  existence  of  an  independent  free  state,  it  was  declared 
to  be  the  ‘imperative  duty’  and  a  ‘sacred  obligation’  of  the  United 
States,  imposed  by  their  constitutional  compact,  to  absorb  that  state 
into  the  Union  in  order  to  prevent  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  it.” 

2  Ibid.,  p.  267  et  seq. 

3  DeBow’s  Review ,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  280.  Ibid.,  Vol.  XV,  p.  263,  contains 
a  report  of  a  convention  held  at  Memphis  in  1853,  where  a  long  resolution 
on  the  opening  of  the  Amazon,  was  adopted,  beginning  as  follows: 


THE  CRISIS  IN  THE  CHATTEL  SLAVE  SYSTEM  237 


were  cast  upon  Cuba  at  this  time,  and  the  descriptions 
of  the  atrocities  of  Spanish  rule  in  that  island  read  very 
much  like  the  writings  which  appeared  upon  that  same 
subject  almost  fifty  years  later,  when  Northern  capital¬ 
ism  was,  in  its  turn,  struggling  for  expansion.1 

All  its  efforts  in  this  direction  were  in  vain.  The  hold 
of  the  South  upon  the  national  government  was  slipping 
away,  and  it  was  impossible  to  use  that  government  for 
another  war  of  conquest. 

Internally  the  chattel  slave  system  was  devouring  itself ; 
externally  it  was  being  strangled  for  lack  of  room  to  ex¬ 
pand.  The  inherent  contradictions  that  arise  within  every 
industrial  system  based  upon  exploitation  were  rending 
it  asunder,  while  a  rival  industrial  system  was  proving 
superior  in  the  great  struggle  for  existence  by  which  social 
systems  are  tried  out  in  the  laboratory  of  history. 

At  such  a  critical  time  possession  of  the  national 
government  was  essential  to  even  a  temporary  prolonga¬ 
tion  of  existence.  When  that  government  passed  into 
the  hands  of  its  rival  in  the  battle  for  survival,  the 
Southern  slavocracy  tried  to  secede  and  establish  a 
government  it  could  control.2 

“Resolved,  that  the  interests  of  commerce,  the  cause  of  civilization, 
and  the  mandates  of  high  heaven,  require  the  Atlantic  slopes  of  South 
America  to  be  subdued  and  replenished.”  Wilson,  “History  of  the 
American  People,”  Vol.  IV,  pp.  1 73-1 74. 

1  Henry  Wilson,  “History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in 
America,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  608-614 ;  DcBow’s  Review ,  Vol.  XVIII,  pp. 
163-167  and  305-313. 

2  Brown,  “The  Lower  South  in  American  History,”  p.  83:  “The 
struggle  for  ascendency  was,  in  fact,  a  struggle  for  existence.  .  .  .  The 
lower  South  was  from  the  beginning  under  a  necessity  either  to  control 
the  national  government  or  radically  to  change  its  own  industrial  and 
social  system.” 


CHAPTER  XXI 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 

While  Southern  society  was  approaching  the  final 
stages  of  its  development  and  displaying  signs  of  inevi¬ 
table  disintegration,  Northern  society  was  leaping  into 
the  vigorous  strength  of  adult  power.  The  industrial 
revolution  that  brought  the  factory  system,  the  growth 
of  great  cities,  the  annihilation  of  space,  the  piling  up  of 
vast  profits,  was  in  full  swing. 

The  railroad  had  passed  the  experimental  stage  me¬ 
chanically,  financially,  and  politically.  It  was  now  ready 
to  work  the  social  transformation  of  which  it  was  capable. 
Until  about  1845  railroads  were  built  simply  to  unite 
two  neighboring  cities,  or  as  links  in  a  canal  system,  or 
to  bring  some  specific  product  to  market.  Each  impor¬ 
tant  city  was  a  “terminal”  of  one  or  more  roads  connect¬ 
ing  it  with  some  comparatively  near-by  place.  There 
was  no  idea  of  a  general  system  binding  a  whole  section 
or  sections  of  the  country  together.1 

The  total  mileage  had  been  steadily  increasing.  There 
were  23  miles  in  1830,  2818  in  1840,  and  9021  in  1850. 
When  these  were  welded  into  systems  covering  large 
sections  and  giving  to  these  sections  an  industrial  and 
social  unity  they  had  not  and  could  not  have  known 
before,  the  mileage  leaped  to  30,635  by  i860.2 

1  Emory  R.  Johnson,  “American  Railway  Transportation,”  p.  25. 

2  A.  S.  Bolles,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  p.  635. 

238 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


239 


The  North  had  far  outstripped  the  South  in  the  extent 
of  its  railroad  building.  According  to  Helper  the  “free” 
states  had  17,855  miles  of  railroad  in  1857,  while  the 
“slave”  states  contained  but  68 59  miles.1  Yet  because 
the  South  controlled  the  national  government,  that  sec¬ 
tion  had  been  especially  favored  in  the  matter  of  land 
grants.  The  system  of  giving  land  from  the  public  do¬ 
main  to  corporations  with  which  to  build  railroads  that 
should  remain  in  private  hands  was  begun  with  the  grant 
to  the  Illinois  Central  in  1850.  Although  this  road  was 
located  in  a  wage  labor  state,  it  was  intended  to  benefit 
the  South  by  linking  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  with 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.2 

This  use  of  the  national  government  for  internal  im¬ 
provements  was  one  of  the  points  where  the  interests  of 
the  North  and  the  South  clashed.  The  South  did  not 
favor  internal  improvements  in  any  whole-hearted  man¬ 
ner,  and  when  it  did  favor  any  specific  improvement  it 
demanded  that  it  be  located  in  the  South.3  The  Pacific 
railway  could  not  be  built  while  the  South  controlled  the 
national  government.4  There  was  a  feature  of  the  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  Pacific  Railway  that  showed  how  the  North 
was  beginning  to  shape  the  national  mind.  Until  about 
1850,  in  all  discussions  of  a  railway  across  the  continent, 
it  was  taken  for  granted  that  it  was  to  be  built  by  the 
national  government,  and  be  owned  by  that  government. 
By  1855  the  idea  of  individual  or  corporate  ownership 

1  H.  R.  Helper,  “The  Impending  Crisis,”  p.  285. 

2  A.  S.  Bolles,  loc.  cit.,  p.  643. 

3  John  P.  Davis,  “The  Union  Pacific  Railway,”  Chap.  Ill;  Brown, 
“  The  Lower  South  in  American  History,”  p.  68. 

4  Davis,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  66-67. 


240 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


was  accepted  in  Congressional  discussions  with  almost 
equal  unanimity.1 

Along  the  railroad  went  the  telegraph,  completing  the 
work  of  solidifying  the  life  of  the  industrial  sections. 
The  first  telegraph  line  was  built  from  Washington  to 
Baltimore  in  1844.  It  was  extended  to  New  York  the 
same  year,  and  to  Boston  the  next.  By  1850  there  were 
22,000  miles  of  telegraph  in  operation,  and  by  i860  this 
had  grown  to  50,000,  and  the  Western  Union  had  laid  the 
foundation  of  its  monopoly. 

It  was  the  telegraph  that  really  made  possible  an  ex¬ 
tensive  railroad  system.  It  is  hard  to-day  to  think  of 
railroad  operation  without  some  method  of  communica¬ 
tion  independent  of  and  faster  than  the  trains  themselves. 

The  telegraph  annihilated  space  in  the  transmission  of 
information,  and  made  it  possible  for  a  whole  section,  and 
later  for  a  whole  nation  and  the  whole  world,  to  think 
together.  It  made  bargaining  and  the  carrying  on  of 
financial  transactions  between  widely  separated  parties 
possible,  and  revolutionized  systems  of  commercial  pro¬ 
cedure  that  had  endured  for  centuries.2  It  created  the 


1  Davis,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  66-67. 

2  “Memorial  History  of  New  York,”  Vol.  Ill,  p.  414 :  “The  tele¬ 
graph,  which  had  come  fairly  into  use  by  1847,  revolutionized  the  methods 
of  business.  Heretofore  it  had  been  the  custom  of  the  merchants  of 
Pittsburg,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  and  Cincinnati,  and  all  the  larger  interior 
towns,  to  visit  New  York  once  a  year  and  select  their  stock  of  goods  for 
the  coming  year.  Now  all  this  was  changed.  The  development  of  the 
railroad  and  the  telegraph  made  it  possible  for  the  merchants  of  the  in¬ 
terior  to  order  any  particular  goods  wanted,  and  to  receive  them  within 
a  day  or  two,  so  that  the  great  wholesale  houses,  instead  of  carrying 
a  large  and  miscellaneous  stock  of  goods,  began  to  limit  themselves  to  a 
single  line,  and  their  customers  in  ordering  would  divide  their  orders 
among  perhaps  a  dozen  houses.” 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


241 


daily  newspaper  as  a  medium  for  the  reception  and  dis¬ 
semination  of  the  events  of  the  world  without  delay. 
Here,  again,  it  was  the  North  whose  solidarity  was 
strengthened  and  social  mentality  unified  and  quickened 
by  the  telegraph. 

One  method  of  communication  was  still  in  an  ex¬ 
tremely  imperfect  state,  and  was  showing  little  signs 
of  improvement.  This  was  the  postal  service.  Mails 
were  carried  only  in  the  daytime.  Not  until  i860  do 
we  read  in  a  report  of  the  postmaster-general  of  an 
“ experiment”  with  a  night  mail  between  New  York  and 
Boston. 

The  systematic  and  complicated  schemes  of  distribu¬ 
tion,  which  are  the  foundation  of  present  postal  systems, 
were  as  yet  un  thought  of.  All  distributing  was  done  in  the 
post-offices.  No  one  had  suggested  a  railway  mail  car 
for  distribution  en  route.  If  the  reader  will  try  to  work 
out  a  system  of  mail  distribution  on  this  plan  to  include 
18,000  post-offices,  the  number  that  existed  in  1850,  he 
will  gain  some  idea  of  the  confusion  and  delay  that 
prevailed.  Separate  pieces  of  mail  would  be  received 
in  each  large  city  for  nearly  all  of  these  post-offices.  To 
sort  this  mail  properly  would  require  18,000  mail  sacks. 
This  being  impossible,  all  the  mail  going  in  one  direction 
was  sent  in  one  sack.  As  this  arrived  at  each  office  en 
route,  it  was  opened,  the  contents  taken  out,  sorted  for 
the  letters  belonging  to  this  particular  office,  and  then  the 
remainder  of  the  mail  returned  to  the  sack  to  continue 
on  its  journey. 

By  the  late  fifties  this  plan  had  become  absolutely 
unworkable,  and  it  had  been  supplemented  by  another 
only  a  trifle  less  clumsy.  Several  larger  cities  were 

R 


242 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


designated  as  “ distributing  centers”  for  all  offices 
near  by. 

Each  “ distributing  center”  had  its  separate  pouch 
containing  the  mail  for  all  contiguous  offices.  The  mail 
was  re-sorted  at  the  “ center”  for  the  smaller  offices. 
Soon  “subsidiary  distributing  offices”  had  to  be  selected, 
so  that  mail  was  often  stopped  at  two  or  three  places  for 
distribution.  Two  towns  but  a  few  miles  apart,  but 
within  different  “distributing  centers,”  were  sometimes 
compelled  to  wait  weeks  for  the  mail  to  go  from  one  to 
the  other,  although  passengers  were  regularly  making  the 
trip  in  a  few  hours. 

The  cost  was  very  high  for  this  inefficient  service. 
Until  1845  rates  for  the  minimum  weight  of  letters  was 
as  follows:  under  30  miles,  six  cents;  30  to  80  miles, 
ten  cents;  80  to  150  miles,  12 J  cents;  150  to  400  miles, 
i8f  cents,  and  over  400  miles,  25  cents.  While  these 
rates  lasted,  many  of  the  most  important  features  of 
modern  industry  were  impossible.  They  tended  very 
strongly  to  the  development  of  sectional  as  contrasted 
with  national  solidarity. 

Population,  transportation,  and  industry  had  now 
reached  a  stage  where  it  was  profitable  for  private 
enterprise  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  post-office 
in  the  carrying  of  small  parcels.  Accordingly,  William 
Harnden  began  what  has  since  developed  into  the  ex¬ 
press  business  by  carrying  parcels  between  New  York  and 
Boston  in  1839.  The  Adams  Express  Company  grew  out 
of  this  undertaking  the  next  year,  and  the  American  Ex¬ 
press  Company  came  into  existence  one  year  later.  The 
powerful  Wells  Fargo,  that  was  to  play  so  large  a  part  in 
the  control  of  Western  trade,  and  especially  of  the  traffic 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


243 


incident  to  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  was 
founded  in  1852.1  The  United  States  Express  Company 
started  two  years  later.  The  express  business  is  pecul¬ 
iarly  American.  In  all  other  countries  the  functions 
performed  by  express  companies  are  divided  between 
the  freight  departments  of  the  railroads  and  the  post- 
office.  This  would  undoubtedly  have  been  the  case  in 
this  country,  had  it  not  been  for  the  fact  that  the  demand 
for  this  service  came  at  a  time  when  the  idea  of  laissez 
faire  and  individual  initiative  ruled  industrial  and 
political  life. 

At  the  very  time  when  the  mails  were  being  changed 
from  stagecoach  to  railroads,  and  when  the  government 
was  beginning  its  policy  of  giving  the  land  with  which 
railroads  were  to  be  built,  the  express  companies  entered 
upon  the  scene  and  absorbed  the  most  profitable  portion 
of  the  mail  business.  Railroad  charges  prevented  the 
post-office  from  entering  into  any  effective  competition 
with  the  express  companies.  Caught  thus  between  the 
upper  and  the  nether  millstone,  the  post-office  started 
upon  that  long  career  of  deficits  that  have  since  served 
to  hamper  its  operation. 

The  officials  who  had  charge  of  the  post-office  at  this 
time  were  not  blind  to  the  dangers  that  threatened  the 
postal  system  through  the  invasion  of  its  profitable 
business  by  the  express  companies.  Postmaster-General 
Wickliffe,  who  was  in  office  from  1841  to  1845,  protested 
in  almost  every  report  that  the  express  companies  were 
violating  the  constitutional  provision  which  gave  the 
government  a  monopoly  of  the  postal  business,  and  that 
they  were  doing  this  only  over  the  short  hauls  and  in  the 

1  A.  L.  Stimpson,  “History  of  the  Express  Business/’  pp.  34-79. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


most  thickly  settled  districts,  leaving  the  unprofitable 
business  to  the  government.1  His  protests  went  un¬ 
heeded,  save  in  so  far  as  they  may  have  led  Congress  to 
the  reduction  of  the  rates  of  postage  in  1845  to  five  cents 
per  half  ounce  for  less  than  300  miles  and  ten  cents  for 
all  distances  over  500  miles. 

By  this  time  a  movement  had  been  started  by  Sir 
Rowland  Hill  in  England  for  “ penny  postage.”  The 
essential  point  of  this  idea  was  not  the  penny  unit,  but 
the  abolition  of  the  distance  charge;  and  in  1851  the  rate 
for  letters  in  the  United  States  was  reduced  to  three  cents, 
without  regard  to  distance. 

We  can  hardly  think  of  a  letter  and  postal  service 
apart  from  postage  stamps,  yet  the  adhesive  stamp  was 
first  authorized  in  the  United  States  in  1847,  and  made 
compulsory  in  1856.  In  1854  the  system  of  registry  for 
valuable  letters  was  introduced. 

The  postal  service  still  lacked  railroad  distribution, 
money  orders,  low  newspaper  postage,  free  delivery,  and 
several  other  things  prominent  at  the  present  time. 
It  was  too  imperfect  to  build  up  national  solidarity, 
but  was  eminently  fitted  to  bring  much  closer  together 
the  people  of  considerable  sections  of  the  nation. 

Since  the  need  of  communication  was  much  more 
strongly  felt,  and  brought  much  greater  material  benefits 
to  an  industrial  than  an  agricultural  nation,  nearly  all 
steps  looking  to  the  improvement  of  the  post-office  met 
with  the  indifference  or  active  opposition  of  the  chattel 
slave-owning  cotton  raisers  of  the  agricultural  South. 

1  Reports  of  Postmaster-General,  1841, 1845  ;  and  opinion  of  Attorney- 
General,  Nov.  13,  1843 ;  also  report  of  Congressional  Committee  in  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1844. 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


245 


The  factory  system,  now  firmly  established,  was  ex¬ 
tending  and  developing  in  all  directions.  Inventions, 
always  the  index  of  mechanical  progress,  were  multiply¬ 
ing.  Up  to  1840  there  had  been  11,908  patents  issued. 
This  was  the  result  of  half  a  century.  31,523  patents 
were  issued  during  the  next  twenty  years.  In  other 
words,  man’s  control  over  nature,  and  the  accompanying 
transformation  in  all  social  relations,  was  almost  three 

J  f 

times  as  great  in  these  twenty  as  in  the  previous  fifty  years. 

These  inventions  were  largely  basic  and  revolutionary 
in  their  character.  Elias  Howe  made  the  first  sewing 
machine  for  which  a  patent  was  granted  in  1846.  Mc¬ 
Cormick  patented  the  reaper  in  1831,  but  never  was  able 
to  make  as  many  as  five  hundred  in  one  year  until  1845. 
In  1844  Goodyear  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present 
rubber  industry  by  his  discovery  of  the  process  of  vul¬ 
canizing  rubber.  Iron  rails  were  first  rolled  in  this  coun¬ 
try  in  1844,  but  only  as  an  experiment.  Even  in  1855, 
when  the  Cambria  Iron  Company  of  Johnstown,  Penn¬ 
sylvania,  rolled  the  first  thirty-foot  rails,  it  found  no  mar¬ 
ket  for  them.  But  by  i860  more  than  200,000  tons  of 
iron  rails  were  manufactured  in  the  United  States.  The 
center  of  this  industry  was  now  definitely  located  in  the 
Pittsburg  district,  and  it  was  here  that  the  growth  was 
most  rapid. 

A  revolutionary  change  had  taken  place  in  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  iron.  In  1839  anthracite  coal  was  first  successfully 
used  in  a  blast  furnace.  By  1855  more  iron  was  being 
produced  with  coal  than  with  wood.1  Hitherto  iron  had 

1  James  M.  Swank,  “The  Manufacture  of  Iron  in  All  Ages,”  Chap. 
XXXV;  A.  S.  Bolles,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,” 
pp.  202-204. 


246  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


been  made  with  charcoal,  and  the  furnace  must  be  kept 
close  to  the  ever  retreating  forest.  Now  the  elements  in 
its  manufacture  were  fixed  as  to  location  for  long  terms 
of  years.  Hereafter  the  location  of  the  iron  and  steel 
industry  was  to  depend  upon  the  relation  of  four  items : 
ore,  coal,  limestone,  and  the  market  for  the  finished 
product. 

In  commerce,  too,  this  was  a  time  of  swift  upward 
development.  By  1846  the  tremendous  tonnage  of  the 
Napoleonic  days  was  equaled,  and  for  the  next  ten  years 
it  shot  up  at  an  unparalleled  rate,  until  American  ships  had 
a  tonnage  of  more  than  2,300,000,  or  nearly  three  times 
as  great  as  at  any  period  prior  to  1845.1  These  were  the 
days  of  the  famous  “clipper”  ships,  the  fastest  sailing 
vessels  ever  launched. 

Three  inventions  came  in  the  years  1836  to  1838  that 
sounded  the  doom  of  American  maritime  supremacy. 
These  were  the  use  of  iron  in  shipbuilding,  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  steam  to  ocean  vessels,  and  the  invention  of  the 
screw  propeller.2  The  cheaper  iron  of  England  was 
soon  to  drive  the  wooden  ships  of  America  from  the 
ocean.  The  shipbuilding  trade  declined  on  American 
soil.  This  fatal  competition  had  not  progressed  far 
enough  prior  to  the  Civil  War  to  produce  any  social 
effects  of  importance.  In  i860  shipping  was  still  in  a 
stage  of  great  prosperity. 

The  spread  of  railroads  had  not  prevented  a  swift  in¬ 
crease  in  the  amount  of  traffic  on  the  inland  waterways. 
While  the  efforts  to  use  steam  in  transatlantic  travel 

1  Coman,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  pp.  228-229. 

2  Bogart,  “  Economic  History  of  the  United  States,”  pp.  206-207; 
Bolles,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  pp.  59I_S9S- 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


247 


were  unsatisfactory,  because  the  imperfect  machinery 
made  it  necessary  to  use  nearly  all  the  storage  capacity 
of  the  ship  for  fuel,  no  such  difficulty  existed  on  the 
rivers  and  lakes  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  where  fuel  grew 
thick  upon  every  bank.  A  type  of  steamer  new  to  the 
history  of  shipbuilding  was  constructed  for  Mississippi 
River  traffic.  It  was  a  broad,  shallow  craft,  built  low  to 
the  water’s  edge,  but  with  two  or  more  decks  above,  and 
great  carrying  capacity.  So  many  of  these  were  built 
that  by  1856  the  steam  tonnage  of  the  Mississippi 
River  equaled  that  of  the  whole  empire  of  Great 
Britain.1 

The  most  important  development  of  inland  water 
transportation  in  this  epoch  was  connected  with  the  great 
system  of  inland  lakes  at  the  head  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  with  their  outlet  to  the  East  into  the  Atlantic. 
These  Great  Lakes  were  the  highway  that  bound  to¬ 
gether  a  group  of  states  with  a  common  industrial  and 
social  structure.  This  group  was  to  constitute  the  pivot 
upon  which  American  politics  were  to  make  their  great¬ 
est  turn.  The  tonnage  of  vessels  on  this  inland  waterway, 
the  greatest  on  the  globe,  grew  from  75,000  in  1840  to 
215,787  in  1850,  and  to  nearly  500,000  in  i860.2 

Yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  fast  as  all  forms  of 
inland  water  navigation  were  growing,  railroad  transpor¬ 
tation  was  leaping  forward  at  a  far  faster  rate.  By  i860 
it  was  estimated  that  two  thirds  of  the  total  internal 
trade  moved  over  iron  rails.3 

The  wave  of  progress  that  was  working  such  changes  in 

1  Bolles,  “Industrial  History  of  the  United  States,”  pp.  588-595. 

2  Bogart,  “Economic  History  of  the  United  States,”  pp.  209-210. 

3  Ibid. 


248  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


manufacture  and  commerce  was  lifting  the  foundations 
of  that  greatest  and  oldest  and  most  immovable  of  in¬ 
dustries  —  agriculture.  Had  the  Roman  Cincinnatus 
been  raised  from  his  sleep  of  centuries  and  placed  upon  an 
American  farm  in  1830,  he  would  have  seen  few  imple¬ 
ments  whose  use  he  would  not  have  been  able  to  under¬ 
stand.  The  greatest  change  would  perhaps  have  been 
the  addition  of  a  long  and  crooked  handle  and  a  number 
of  fingers  to  an  elongated  blade  of  a  sickle,  by  which 
process  the  grain  cradle  had  been  evolved.  But  farm 
labor  was  still  hand  labor.  Almost  no  use  was  made  of 
animals  save  for  hauling  loads  and  pulling  the  plow.  A 
new  era  was  at  hand. 

“The  decade  1850  to  i860  was  a  period  when  American 
inventors  were  earnestly  endeavoring  to  improve  all 
classes  of  farm  implements  and  machinery.  It  witnessed 
the  beginning  of  the  practical  use  of  horse-driven  machin¬ 
ery  for  cutting  and  threshing  grain,  the  first  of  a  series 
of  changes  that  subsequently  revolutionized  the  methods 
of  work  on  all  farms  in  the  United  States  outside  of  those 
devoted  to  cotton-growing.”1 

The  reason  for  this  is  found  largely  in  the  fact  that 
this  was  the  period  of  the  opening  up  of  the  first  broad 
strip  of  prairie  embracing  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  eastern 
Kansas  and  Nebraska.  Here  it  was  possible  to  use 
many  tools  which  could  not  be  employed  upon  the 
stony,  stumpy  farms  of  New  England  and  the  Ohio 
Valley. 

Factory  methods  in  the  production  of  agricultural 
machinery  were  impossible  before  the  railroad  system 
of  the  country  was  sufficiently  developed  to  place  a  large 

1  Census  1900,  Vol.  V,  Pt.  I,  p.  xxvi. 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


249 


number  of  farms  within  reach  of  a  single  central  point.1 
The  application  of  agricultural  machinery  also  requires 
a  market  for  a  crop  in  the  raising  of  which  such  machinery 
can  be  used.  When  the  railroads  and  the  Great  Lakes 
and  canals  opened  a  highway  for  the  grain  trade,  this 
third  condition  was  fulfilled.  The  first  shipment  of 
grain  ever  made  from  Chicago  was  in  1838,  and  the 
total  amount  sent  out  that  year  was  78  bushels.  By 
1845  more  than  a  million  bushels  passed  through  this 
same  port  on  the  way  to  the  markets  of  the  world.  In 
i860  a  total  of  31,109,059  bushels  went  through  the  same 
gateway.2 

The  most  important  population  movement  of  this 
period  was  the  filling  up  of  the  Great  Lakes  region. 
Hostile  Indian  tribes,  imperfect  transportation,  and  the 
fact  that  immigration  had  come  largely  from  slave  ter¬ 
ritory  and  could  not  bring  its  favorite  institution  into 
this  locality  with  profit,  all  had  contributed  to  keep  this 
great  stretch  of  territory  unsettled.  Now  all  these 
obstacles  were  removed  at  once.  The  Erie  Canal  and 
steam  upon  the  lakes,  followed  by  the  railroad,  threw 
wide  the  gates  to  the  incoming  hosts.  And  the  hosts 
were  ready  to  come.  The  manufacturing  states  of  New 
England  and  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  were  casting 
out  the  first  battalions  of  workless  workers  displaced  by 

1  Census  1900,  Bulletin  No.  200,  on  "  Agricultural  Implements,”  p.  18: 
“  It  was  not  until  the  western  movement  of  the  population  had  converted 
the  rich  alluvial  plains  of  the  western  states  into  productive  farms,  and 
the  railroad  systems  of  the  country  had  extended  their  lines  for  the  dis¬ 
tribution  of  farm  products,  that  the  progress  and  development  of  this 
industry  (manufacture  of  agricultural  machinery)  found  its  full  expres¬ 
sion.” 

2  Eighth  Census. 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


the  machine  and  the  superabundance  of  their  own 
product.  This  army  was  reenforced  by  shiploads  of 
immigrants.  Europe,  in  the  throes  of  the  Revolution  of 
1848,  was  outlawing  her  rebellious  workers  and  driving 
them  by  tens  of  thousands  to  America. 

Natural  calamity  added  to  political  upheaval  in 
driving  the  European  workers  to  the  New  World. 
A  potato  famine  in  Ireland  in  1848  started  the  tre¬ 
mendous  flood  of  Irish  toward  America,  adding  one  of 
the  most  important  factors  of  the  social  life  of  this 
country.1 

Within  the  Northern  states  there  was  a  great  drift  of 
population  cityward.  In  1830  only  6.7  per  cent  of  the 
population  of  the  country  lived  in  cities  of  more  than 
8000  inhabitants.  Twenty  years  later  this  percentage 
was  1 6. 1. 2  This  was  the  time  of  the  birth  of  the  modern 
city  proletariat,  one  of  the  most  definite  products  of  the 
capitalist  system. 

This  great  Northwest  that  was  now  being  settled  with 
such  rapidity  was  quickly  seen  to  hold  the  balance  of 
power  between  the  hitherto  contending  sections  of  the 
country.  Whichever  side  could  bind  this  section  to  it 
with  bonds  of  economic  interest  could  dominate  in  the 
national  government.  The  South  had  the  start  in  the 
race.  The  commercial  artery  of  the  section  was  the 
southward-flowing  Mississippi.  The  South  bought  its 
mules  and  the  hay  with  which  they  were  fed,  as  well  as 

1  Industrial  Commission  Report,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  260-277.  The  total 
immigration  by  decades  from  1821  was  as  follows :  1821  to  1830,  143,439 ; 
1831  to  1840,  599,125;  1841  to  1850,  1,713,251;  1851  to  i860, 
2,598,214.  Of  those  who  came  between  1841  and  i860,  1,694,838  came 
from  Ireland,  and  1,386,293  from  Germany. 

2  “  Statistical  Atlas  of  the  United  States,”  1900,  p.  40. 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


251 


the  corn  meal  and  pork  that  formed  the  slave  ration, 
from  this  section.1 

The  East  and  the  West  were  competing  in  agriculture. 
There  was  no  little  complaint  over  the  fact  that  the 
cheapness  with  which  grain  could  be  raised  in  the  West 
was  depreciating  farm  values  in  New  York  and  New 
England.2 

When  manufacture  and  commerce  dominated  the  East, 
it  became  a  buyer  of  agricultural  products.  It  then 
competed  with  the  South  as  a  market  for  the  agricultural 
West,  instead  of  competing  with  the  West  as  a  seller  in 
the  Southern  and  all  other  markets.  Henceforth  the 
fight  for  the  favor  of  the  West  was  a  fight  of  transporta¬ 
tion  routes.  While  nature  seemed  to  favor  the  South  in 
the  beginning  of  this  struggle,  each  new  invention  gave 
more  advantage  to  the  East.  Moreover,  in  this  direction 
lies  Europe,  to  which  much  of  the  products  of  the  prairies 
of  the  West  was  destined  to  flow. 

The  cities  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and 
Baltimore  fought  with  each  other  in  the  effort  to  divert 

1  Brown,  “The  Lower  South  in  American  History,”  p.  35. 

2  Timothy  Dwight,  in  the  New  England  Magazine  for  April,  1848, 
says:  “Soon  after  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal,  lands  in  New  York 
began  to  increase  in  price,  and  rose  steadily  in  value,  until  they  were 
sold  in  many  cases  at  from  $60  to  $100  an  acre.  But  as  soon  as  Ohio 
and  Michigan  began  to  produce  wheat  in  quantities  greatly  exceeding 
their  own  consumption,  and  were  able  to  deliver  in  Buffalo  several 
million  of  bushels  annually,  the  value  of  these  lands  began  to  decline. 
A  year  or  two  since  we  were  informed  that  the  depreciation  was  so  great 
that  lands  which  some  years  before  had  been  mortgaged  for  two-thirds 
or  three-fourths  of  their  value  would  not  at  that  time  sell  for  the  amount 
of  the  mortgage.  The  same  thing  is  strikingly  evinced  by  the  fact  that 
the  aggregate  population  of  twenty-four  counties  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  comprising  some  of  the  most  fertile  in  the  central  and  western 
parts  of  the  State,  was  less  in  1845  than  in  1840.” 


252  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


this  trade  through  their  gates.1  When,  in  1853,  the  first 
railroad  united  Chicago  with  the  Atlantic  coast,  DeBow 
estimated  that  the  state  of  New  York  alone  had  ex¬ 
pended  more  than  a  hundred  million  dollars  in  improv¬ 
ing  the  routes  to  the  Northwest  which  ran  through  her 
boundaries.2  In  1861  an  English  observer,  quoted  in  the 
New  York  Times ,  estimated  that  $500,000,000  had  been 
expended  to  “change  the  direction  of  the  commerce  of 
the  Mississippi.”  3 

This  “reversing  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi”  did 
not  go  on  without  protest  from  the  South.  At  the 
numerous  Southern  conventions  held  in  the  years  imme¬ 
diately  preceding  the  war,  one  of  the  perennial  subjects, 
along  with  the  foreign  slave  trade,  the  conquest  of  new 
slave  territory,  and  the  encouragement  of  Southern  manu¬ 
factures,  was  the  question  of  how  this  trade  could  be 

1  William  Grant,  “  Observations  on  the  Western  Trade,”  in  Hudson 
River  R.R.  Reports,  pp.  12-16. 

2  DeBow' s  Review,  September,  1853,  p.  313. 

3  Fite,  “Social  and  Industrial  Conditions  in  the  North  during  the  Civil 
War,”  p.  14  :  “Still  another  piece  of  good  fortune  for  the  West  was  the 
trunk  line  railroads.  These  were  bands  of  iron  binding  the  farming  sections 
to  the  East,  helping  to  hold  them  in  the  Union  by  providing  a  market 
for  their  produce.  In  the  ten  years  preceding,  in  the  states  of  Indiana, 
Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa  seven  thousand  miles  of  railroad  were  con¬ 
structed,  provision  far  in  advance  of  the  needs  of  the  country,  but,  as  it 
proved,  a  magnificent  preparation  for  the  unforeseen  strain  of  war.  The 
Mississippi  formerly  had  been  the  outlet  of  these  sections  to  a  market, 
carrying  the  grain  and  other  produce  to  New  Orleans,  where  it  was  dis¬ 
tributed  in  all  directions.  After  the  war  closed  the  River,  if  the  railroads 
had  not  been  in  existence,  the  West  would  have  been  isolated  without  a 
market,  and  it  was  believed  by  some  that  rather  than  lose  this,  the  section 
would  have  followed  its  market  into  secession.  According  to  this  view, 
the  Union  was  saved  by  the  railroads.  Others  with  less  confidence  in  the 
roads,  or  perhaps  even  ignoring  their  existence,  openly  feared  the  western 
secession,  and  many  in  the  South  prophesied  it.” 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


253 


retained  by  the  South.  DeBow  never  ceased  to  urge 
the  South  to  enter  into  competition  with  the  North  in 
the  building  of  railroads.  In  1851  he  exclaims,  “New 
Orleans  in  every  period  of  her  history  has  been  the 
emporium  of  the  West,  and  New  Orleans  will  only  give 
up  that  distinction  after  the  most  unremitting  and  her¬ 
culean  struggles  have  exhausted  her  energy.  The  sceptre 
has  not  yet  departed,  and  if  her  citizens  are  true  to  them¬ 
selves,  the  sceptre  shall  not  depart.” 

The  scepter  did  depart,  however.  The  industrial 
capitalist  had  too  great  an  advantage  in  such  a  struggle. 
The  surplus  value  taken  from  wageworkers  is  much 
larger  than  that  obtained  from  chattel  slaves,  and  it  is 
more  readily  converted  into  the  capital  needed  for  inter¬ 
nal  improvements.  Wage  labor  is  much  more  adapted 
to  the  construction  of  such  works.  It  was  but  natural, 
therefore,  that  a  railroad  map  of  the  United  States  pub¬ 
lished  by  DeBow  in  1851  shows  that  not  only  are  the 
roads  actually  constructed  in  the  North  much  greater  in 
mileage,  while  our  later  knowledge  tells  us  that  most  of 
those  dotted  lines  in  the  South  indicating  “  projected 
roads”  were  not  constructed  until  long  after  chattel 
slavery  had  disappeared. 

In  1848  came  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  the  wild  rush  to  the  Pacific  coast,  the  inflation 
of  the  money  basis,  the  possibility  of  a  gold  standard, 
and  a  safer  system  of  banking.  All  these  things  helped 
to  unify  and  strengthen  the  growing  power  of  capitalism. 

All  things  had  worked  together  to  weld  the  North 
into  a  compact  section  with  common  interests.  The 
railroad  and  telegraph  had  given  it  industrial  and  social 
unity.  The  progress  of  invention,  and  the  factory  sys- 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


tem  based  upon  the  inventions,  had  brought  it  wealth 
and  power.  Agriculture,  commerce,  manufacture,  and 
mining  were  in  the  wave  of  prosperity  that  accompanies 
the  conquest  of  new  fields.  Everywhere  the  watch¬ 
word  was  expansion. 

Prior  to  about  1855  the  interests  of  the  North  had 
been  too  sectional,  competitive,  and  diversified  to  form 
the  foundation  of  any  common  political  action.  Each 
little  competing  section  had  interests  uniting  it  with  the 
South.  There  was  no  widespread  interest  demanding 
control  of  the  national  government.  Here  we  find  the 
explanation  of  the  sham  fights  between  the  Whigs  and 
the  Democrats,  with  their  utter  lack  of  any  conflict  of 
principles.1 

There  now  arose  a  class  throughout  the  North  com¬ 
pact  in  its  organization,  definite  and  largely  agreed  in 
industrial  interest,  and  having  need  of  the  national  gov¬ 
ernment  to  defend  that  interest.  This  was  the  little 
competitive  bourgeoisie  that  had  already  overthrown 
feudalism  in  Europe.  It  was  in  the  upper  Mississippi 
Valley  that  this  class  ruled  with  fewest  entangling  al¬ 
liances  with  other  classes.  Here  old  political  ties  were 
weak,  and  the  new  industrial  interests  keen.  The  new 
state  governments  commanded  no  such  local  and  state 
patriotism  as  did  the  seaboard  states,  with  their  pre¬ 
revolutionary  traditions.  The  little  capitalist  mind 
possessed  employers,  wageworkers,  and  farmers  alike. 
All  hoped,  and  with  better  reason  than  at  any  time 
since,  to  become  capitalists.  The  new  and  growing 
country  about  them  apparently  offered  unlimited  oppor- 

1  M.  Ostrogorski,  “Democracy  and  the  Organization  of  Political 
Parties,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  40-41. 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


255 


tunity  to  “rise”  —  the  highest  ideal  of  the  bourgeois 
mind. 

The  members  of  this  class  wanted  internal  improve¬ 
ments  built  by  the  national  government.  They  wanted 
a  protective  tariff.  They  favored  immigration,  —  the 
manufacturer  to  cheapen  labor,  the  landowner  to  raise 
real  estate  values,  all  to  build  up  the  country  and  bring 
“prosperity.”  They  wanted  a  homestead  law  that 
should  assure  the  remainder  of  the  West  to  wage  labor. 
They  opposed  any  further  extension  of  the  slave  power, 
and  were  determined  to  wrest  the  control  of  the  national 
government  from  that  power.  All  these  desires  found 
expression  in  the  Republican  party. 

There  was  an  idealistic  element  in  the  organization  of 
the  Republican  party  that  should  not  be  overlooked. 
There  is  always  such  an  element  in  any  revolutionary 
movement,  and  the  Republican  party  was  essentially 
revolutionary  in  many  of  its  purposes.  It  was  demand¬ 
ing  that  the  control  of  government  be  transferred  to  a 
new  social  class,  and  that  is  the  essence  of  revolution. 
It  was  the  same  in  the  days  of  the  French  Revolution, 
—  in  the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  Eng¬ 
land,  and  in  every  time  of  great  social  and  political 
change.  Such  an  idealistic  element  was  already  in 
existence  in  the  Eastern  states.  Its  prophet  was  Horace 
Greeley,  and  its  inspired  message  was  found  in  the 
columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune.  Around  this  paper, 
with  Greeley  at  its  head,  had  been  gathered  Charles  A. 
Dana,  as  managing  editor,  Albert  Brisbane,  the  Fourierite, 
as  the  contributor  of  a  column  each  week  on  Utopian 
Socialism,  and  Karl  Marx  as  principal  European  cor¬ 
respondent. 


256  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


The  Tribune  had  taken  up  many  of  the  reforms  that 
had  been  demanded  by  the  labor  movement  of  the 
thirties.  It  had  given  an  idealistic  and  labor  turn  to 
many  bourgeois  principles,  which  were  now  adopted  by 
the  Republican  party.  It  advocated  a  protective  tariff 
as  a  measure  to  increase  wages  instead  of  profits.  In 
so  doing  it  gave  to  the  defenders  of  the  tariff  the  only 
new  argument  since  Hamilton.  Greeley  advocated  the 
homestead  law  as  a  means  of  granting  all  an  equal  share 
in  the  earth.1  This  action  of  Greeley  and  the  Tribune 
brought  to  the  new  Republican  party  the  support  of 
a  large  section  of  the  working  class.  The  idealism  that 
accompanied  the  birth  of  the  party  also  gained  the 
allegiance  of  the  college  and  school  influence  of  the 
North.  Whittier  wrote  its  campaign  songs.  Lowell 
translated  its  doctrines  into  poetry,  while  Emerson, 
Bryant,  Longfellow,  Holmes,  and  Motley  were  some  of 
the  names  high  in  American  literature  who  were  counted 
on  its  membership  rolls.2 

Seeing  in  the  Republican  party  the  incarnation  of  the 
ideals  for  which  they  had  fought  in  Europe,  the  revolu¬ 
tionary  German  exiles  of  1848  added  their  strength  to 
the  new  political  movement.  This  element  included 
such  men  as  Carl  Schurz,  afterward  a  cabinet  officer, 
Weydemeyer,  the  Socialist  and  fellow- worker  with  Marx, 
and  whole  regiments  like  those  who  “ fought  mit  Siegel” 
in  the  war  that  was  already  casting  its  shadow  before. 

1  John  R.  Commons,  “  Horace  Greeley  and  the  Working  Class  Origin 
of  the  Republican  Party,”  Political  Science  Quarterly ,  Vol.  XXIV, 
No.  3. 

2  Wm.  H.  Smith,  “A  Political  History  of  Slavery,”  Vol.  I,  pp. 
233-234* 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


257 


The  first  railroad  uniting  Chicago  with  the  East  was 
completed  in  1853,  and  the  next  year  organizations  bear¬ 
ing  the  name  Republican  party  sprang  up  almost  simul¬ 
taneously  in  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Indiana,  and 
Ohio.1 

The  first  national  convention  of  the  new  party  was 
held  at  Pittsburg  in  February,  1856.  The  committee 
calling  that  convention  submitted  an  address  which 
gives  the  following  reasons  for  forming  a  new  party:2  — 

“The  slaveholding  interest  cannot  be  made  permanently 
paramount  in  the  general  government  without  involving 
consequences  fatal  to  free  institutions.  We  acknowl¬ 
edge  that  it  is  large  and  powerful ;  that  in  states  where 
it  exists  it  is  entitled  under  the  constitution,  like  all 
other  local  interests,  to  immunity  from  the  interference 
of  the  general  government ;  and  that  it  must  necessarily 
exercise  through  its  representatives  a  considerable  share 
of  political  power.  But  there  is  nothing  in  its  position, 
as  there  is  certainly  nothing  in  its  character,  to  sustain 

the  supremacy  which  it  seeks  to  establish. 

•  •  •  •  •  •  • 

“The  representatives  of  freedom  on  the  floor  of  Con¬ 
gress  have  been  treated  with  contumely,  if  they  resist 
or  question  the  right  to  supremacy  of  the  slaveholding 
class.  The  labor  and  commerce  of  sections  where  slavery 
does  not  exist  obtain  tardy  and  inadequate  recognition 
from  the  general  government.  .  .  .  Thus  is  the  decision 
of  great  questions  of  public  policy,  touching  vast  in¬ 
terests  and  vital  rights,  questions  even  of  peace  and 
war,  made  to  turn,  not  upon  the  requirements  of  justice 

1  Francis  Curtis,  “The  Republican  Party,”  Chap.  IV. 

2  Benjamin  F.  Hall,  “The  Republican  Party,”  pp.  448-456. 

s 


258  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


and  honor,  but  upon  its  relation  to  the  subject  of  slavery 
—  upon  the  effect  it  will  have  upon  the  interest  of  the 
slaveholding  class.” 

It  is  plain  that  the  indictment  here  is  not  of  slavery, 
but  of  the  rule  of  the  slaveholding  class. 

John  C.  Fremont,  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 
party  in  this  first  campaign,  received  more  votes  than 
the  Whig  nominee  and  within  a  half  million  of  the  num¬ 
ber  received  by  Buchanan,  the  successful  Democrat. 
More  than  90  per  cent  of  this  vote  came  from  New 
England  and  the  states  that  touch  the  Great  Lakes. 
Wherever  in  these  states  commercial  connections  were 
close  with  the  South  the  Republican  vote  was  small.1 

During  the  next  four  years  every  force  that  had 
created  the  Republican  party  grew  stronger.  To  these 
steadily  growing  forces  was  added  that  sudden  shock 
which  seems  always  necessary  to  bring  long  developing 
revolutionary  forces  to  a  climax.  This  shock  was  fur¬ 
nished  by  two  events — the  Dred  Scott  decision  and  the 
panic  of  1857.  The  panic  had  the  effect  of  accentuating 
the  need  of  expansion  of  capitalist  territory  and  markets, 
of  emphasizing  the  need  of  controlling  the  national  gov¬ 
ernment  and  in  general  of  sharpening  class  consciousness 
and  class  antagonisms. 

The  panic  having  created  a  highly  unstable  social 
compound,  the  Dred  Scott  decision  furnished  the  spark 
that  led  to  the  explosion.  The  Supreme  Court  had  been 

1  James  Ford  Rhodes,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  Ill,  p.  227 : 
“West  of  the  Allegheny  mountains  the  enthusiasm  for  Fremont  was  like 
that  in  New  England,  New  York,  and  Ohio;  but  as  one  traveled  east¬ 
ward  a  different  political  atmosphere  could  easily  be  felt,  and  when  one 
reached  Philadelphia,  which  was  bound  to  the  South  by  a  lucrative 
trade,  the  chill  was  depressing.” 


I 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM  259 

steadily  usurping  power  since  the  days  of  Marshall.  It 
had  grown  arrogant  and  isolated  from  popular  sentiment. 
Years  of  Democratic  control  of  the  national  government 
had  packed  the  court  with  justices  friendly  to  the  slave 
power.  Now  it  proceeded  to  enact  into  law  things  that 
the  chattel  slaveowners  had  never  dared  to  ask  of 
Congress. 

Dred  Scott  was  a  negro  whose  master  had  taken  him 
from  Missouri  into  the  free  state  of  Illinois.  When  he 
was  taken  back  to  Missouri,  he  demanded  his  freedom 
on  the  ground  that  taking  him  into  a  free  state  had 
broken  his  master’s  right  of  property.  The  court  not 
only  decided  against  him,  but,  anxious  to  show  its  com¬ 
plete  subserviency  to  the  slavocracy,  it  proceeded  to 
destroy  all  the  carefully  built  up  compromises  by  which 
politicians  had  sought  to  cover  up  the  struggle  between 
the  North  and  the  South.  Chief  Justice  Taney,  who 
has  made  his  name  infamous  and  the  Supreme  Court 
forever  contemptible  by  this  decision,  went  on  to  declare 
that  slaves  being  property  and  not  persons,  neither  Con¬ 
gress  nor  territorial  governments  could  prevent  the 
owner  of  slaves  from  going  where  he  wished  with  his 
property. 

This  was  telling  the  capitalists  of  the  North  that  no 
matter  what  happened,  while  the  slaveholders  con¬ 
trolled  the  Supreme  Court  the  powers  of  government 
were  out  of  the  reach  of  the  society  resting  upon  wage 
labor. 

When  the  power  of  the  slaveowner  seemed  strongest, 
when  the  Supreme  Court  had  apparently  placed  him  in 
complete  command,  it  was  inevitable  that  those  who 
could  not  see  that  this  was  an  act  of  desperation  on  the 


260  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


part  of  a  falling  class,  rather  than  of  bold  defiance  by 
an  impregnable  ruler,  should  also  grow  desperate.  Such 
a  one  was  John  Brown,  who  now  hurled  a  new  mass  of 
explosives  into  the  midst  of  the  conflagration.  In  as 
recklessly  foolish  “ propaganda  of  the  deed”  as  was  ever 
suggested  by  the  most  fanatical  defender  of  “  individual 
warfare”  he  tried,  with  a  handful  of  men,  to  capture  the 
United  States  arsenal  at  Harper’s  Ferry,  Virginia.  He 
dreamed  that  by  so  doing  he  would  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  uprising  of  negro  slaves,  who  would  cut  their 
way  to  liberty  over  the  bodies  of  their  masters.  He 
seems  to  have  combined  the  dream  of  the  abolitionist, 
the  bloody  visions  of  bleeding  Kansas  (where  he  had 
been  a  doer  of  bloody  deeds),  and  the  slave-insurrection 
nightmare  of  the  South,  and  from  these  phantoms 
sought  to  build  a  new  society.  Of  course  Brown’s  little 
force  was  wiped  out,  he  was  hung,  and  the  North  almost 
unanimously  joined  with  the  South  in  denouncing  his 
action.  But  before  twelve  months  had  passed  away, 
'  troops  were  marching  southward  to  the  tune  of  “John 
Brown’s  body  lies  a-moldering  in  the  grave,  but  his  soul 
goes  marching  on.” 

It  would  be  foolish  to  pass  judgment  on  the  deed  of 
John  Brown.  It  was  inevitable  that  in  the  terribly 
electric  atmosphere  that  preceded  the  coming  social 
storm,  there  should  be  some  individual  who  should  seek 
to  “short  circuit”  the  social  forces,  and  get  burned  up 
for  his  pains.  Such  a  phenomena  did  little  more  than 
demonstrate  the  existence  of  these  forces. 

When  the  Republican  party  held  its  next  convention 
in  the  summer  of  i860,  the  forces  that  were  to  carry  it 
to  victory  had  already  been  crystallized  along  well- 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM 


261 


defined  class  lines.  That  convention  was  expected  to 
nominate  William  H.  Seward  for  President.  He  repre¬ 
sented  the  idealistic,  scholarly,  antislavery  element  of 
New  England.  But  the  scepter  had  passed  from  the 
Northeast.  The  Great  Lakes  region  was  vigorously  asser¬ 
tive  in  its  right  to  be  heard.  This  section  put  forward 
a  young  politician,  whose  fame  rested  largely  upon  the 
triumphs  he  had  gained  in  a  series  of  joint  debates  with 
Stephen  A.  Douglas.  This  man’s  name  was  Abraham 
Lincoln. 

No  man  could  better  typify  the  class  he  represented 
than  Lincoln.  The  product  of  the  golden  age  of  capital- 
ism,  he  embodies  all  the  best  of  that  system.  Strong 
common  sense,  marvelously  keen  judgment  of  men, 
shrewd  insight  into  human  relations,  infinite  patience 
and  sterling  honesty,  —  these  were  the  ideal  virtues  of 
capitalism,  and  in  Lincoln  they  reached  their  transcendent 
expression.  He  proved  himself  the  “ fittest  to  survive” 
in  that  fierce  “struggle  for  existence”  under  those 
frontier  conditions  where  the  struggle  was  freer  and 
fairer  than  the  world  has  ever  known  elsewhere. 

The  days  that  produced  Lincoln  are  gone.  He  will 
stand  as  the  greatest  American  until  some  other  social 
stage  shall  have  produced  its  best.  In  some  ways  he 
stood  above  the  system  that  produced  him,  but  this  is 
true  of  any  man  who  incarnates  the  very  best  of  any 
social  system,  because  he  must,  perforce,  incarnate  some¬ 
thing  of  the  promise  of  that  system. 

To  say  that  the  Republican  party  was  organized  or 
that  the  Civil  War  was  waged  to  abolish  slavery,  is  but 
to  repeat  a  tale  invented  after  the  war  was  almost  over 
to  glorify  that  party  and  the  class  it  represented.  No 


1 


262  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


candidate  was  ever  a  better  representative  of  his  party 
than  Lincoln.  He  repeatedly  and  emphatically  denied 
any  intention  of  interfering  with  slavery  in  the  South. 
In  his  debate  with  Douglas  he  said :  “  We  have  no  right 
at  all  to  disturb  it  in  the  states  where  it  exists,  and  we 
profess  that  we  have  no  more  inclination  to  disturb  it 
than  we  have  the  right  to  do  it.”  In  his  first  inaugural 
he  declared  his  purpose  to  be  to  “save  the  Union”  and 
this  either  with  or  without  slavery. 

So  eager  was  the  North  and  the  Republican  party  to 
maintain  the  Union,  and  so  indifferent  were  they  to  the 
slavery  question,  that  after  the  election  of  Lincoln,  both 
houses  of  Congress  passed  a  provision  for  a  constitutional 
amendment  and  sent  it  to  the  states  for  ratification, 
providing  that  slavery  should  be  forever  guaranteed 
and  that  no  future  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
should  ever  be  submitted  authorizing  Congress  to 
interfere  with  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  was  then 
located.1 

The  South  seceded  because  no  industrial  system  can 
continue  unless  its  ruling  class  controls  the  government. 
This  is  especially  true  of  a  system  based  on  exploitation. 
The  South  had  no  need  of  the  North.  Its  industrial 
system  was  barred  by  soil  and  climate  from  expanding 
in  that  direction.  If  it  had  a  government  it  could  con¬ 
trol,  there  was  the  possibility  of  expansion  to  the  South. 
Even  at  the  price  of  surrendering  the  system  of  chattel 
slavery  the  Southern  ruling  class  preferred  a  govern¬ 
ment  which  it  could  control.  Numerous  proposals  look¬ 
ing  to  the  abolition  of  negro  chattel  slavery  were  con¬ 
sidered  in  the  Confederate  Congress,  when  it  was  thought 

1  J.  Schouler,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  V,  p.  507. 


RISE  OF  NORTHERN  CAPITALISM  263 

that  such  action  might  possibly  bring  the  support  of 
France  and  England  to  the  Confederate  cause.1 

The  North,  on  the  contrary,  had  a  strong  interest  in 
maintaining  the  Union  intact.  Capitalism  must  expand, 
and  it  knows  almost  no  limits  of  soil  or  climate.  The 
South  was  largely  in  the  nature  of  a  colony  of  the 
North.  Estimates  of  the  debts  of  Southern  planters  and 
merchants  to  Northern  capitalists  in  i860  run  from  forty 
to  four  hundred  million  dollars.2  These  debts  were 
promptly  repudiated  on  the  outbreak  of  war.  The  Con¬ 
federate  government  authorized  the  payment  of  such 
debts  to  it  instead  of  to  the  original  creditor.3 

When,  therefore,  the  capitalist  class  came  into  power 
through  Lincoln  and  the  Republican  party,  secession  by 
the  South  and  Civil  War  to  prevent  that  secession  were 
inevitable. 

1  American  Historical  Review,  Vol.  I,  p.  97. 

2  John  C.  Schwab,  “The  Confederate  States  of  America,”  p.  no. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  112-121.  London  Economist,  Jan.  12,  1861,  p.  30,  says: 
“Many  voices  have  been  heard  clamoring  for  secession  as  an  excuse  for 
repudiating  the  debts,  private  and  commercial,  as  well  as  public,  which 
they  owe  to  the  wealthier  classes  of  the  North.” 


CHAPTER  XXII 


THE  ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS 

The  ruling  class  of  the  South  having  determined  upon 
secession,  and  the  rulers  of  the  North  being  convinced 
that  their  interests  demanded  a  united  nation,  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  which  set  of  interests  should  prevail  was  decided 
by  an  armed  conflict. 

Looking  back  upon  that  conflict  through  the  lens  of 
later  knowledge,  the  South  seems  foredoomed  to  the 
defeat  it  met.  When  the  Constitution  was  adopted  and 
the  nation  began,  the  two  sections  were  almost  exactly 
equal  in  area,  population,  and  wealth.  The  slight  shade 
of  advantage  belonged  to  the  South.  This  equality  con¬ 
tinued  until  the  industrial  revolution  that  followed  the 
War  of  1812.  From  that  date  on  the  North,  borne  by 
the  new  machine-driven  industry,  began  to  leave  the 
agricultural  South  behind.1 

1  Ellwood  Fisher,  “  The  North  and  the  South,”,  in  DeBow's  Review, 
Vol.  VII,  p.  135  :  “When  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted,  the  population  of  the  two  sections  of  the  United  States  was 
nearly  equal  —  each  being  not  quite  two  million  of  inhabitants,  the 
South  including  more  than  half  a  million  slaves.  The  territory  then 
occupied  by  the  two  was,  perhaps,  also  nearly  equal  in  extent  and  fer¬ 
tility.  Their  commerce  also  was  about  the  same;  the  North  exporting 
about  $9,800,540  in  1790  and  the  South  $9,200,500.  Even  the  property 
held  by  the  two  sections  was  almost  exactly  the  same  in  amount,  being 
four  hundred  millions  in  value  in  each,  according  to  an  assessment  for 
direct  taxes  in  1799.  For  the  first  quarter  of  a  century  of  the  present 
government,  up  to  1816,  the  South  took  the  lead  of  the  North  in  com- 

264 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  265 


By  i860  the  South  had  a  population  of  but  nine 
million.  Of  these  three  million  were  negro  slaves.  The 
North  had  a  population  of  twenty-two  million,  the  in¬ 
dustrial  portion  of  whom  were  wageworkers,  much  more 
effective  fighters  in  a  military  contest,  —  and  this 
whether  they  carried  guns  or  tools  of  production.  In 
accumulated  capital,  in  industrial  productivity,  in  trans¬ 
portation  facilities,  in  financial  resources,  commercial 
power,  and  all  the  other  things  from  which  modern 
militarism  draws  its  strength  the  North  was  overwhelm¬ 
ingly  the  superior.1 

merce;  as  at  the  end  of  that  period  the  exports  of  the  Southern  states 
amounted  to  about  $30,000,000,  which  was  five  millions  more  than  the 
Northern.  At  this  time,  in  1816,  South  Carolina  and  New  York  were 
the  two  greatest  exporting  states  of  the  union,  South  Carolina  exporting 

more  than  $10,000,000  and  New  York  over  $14,000,000. 

•  •••••••• 

“  Even  in  manufactures,  the  South  at  this  period  excelled  the  North 
in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  their  populations.  In  1810,  according 
to  the  returns  of  the  marshals  of  the  United  States,  the  fabrics  of  wool, 
cotton,  and  linen  manufactured  in  the  Southern  states,  amounted  to 
40,344,274  yards,  valued  at  $21,061,525,  whilst  the  North  fabricated 
34,786,497  yards,  estimated  at  $15,771,724.  .  .  . 

“Since  that  period  a  great  change  has  occurred.  The  harbors  of  Nor¬ 
folk,  of  Richmond,  of  Charleston,  and  Savannah  have  been  deserted  for 
those  of  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston ;  and  New  Orleans  is  the 
only  southern  city  that  pretends  to  rival  its  northern  competitors.  The 
grass  is  growing  in  the  streets  of  those  cities  of  the  South,  which  origi¬ 
nally  monopolized  our  colonial  commerce,  and  maintained  their  ascend¬ 
ancy  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  union.  Manufactures  and  the  arts  have 
also  gone  to  take  up  their  abode  in  the  North.  Cities  have  expanded 
and  multiplied  in  the  same  favored  region.  Railroads  and  canals  have 
been  constructed  and  education  has  delighted  there  to  build  her  colleges 
and  seminaries.” 

1  John  C.  Ropes,  “The  Story  of  the  Civil  War,”  Vol.  I,  p.  99  :  “In 
material  prosperity  the  North  was  far  in  advance  of  the  South.  In 
accumulated  capital  there  was  no  comparison  between  the  two  sections. 
The  immigration  from  Europe  had  kept  the  labor  market  of  the  North 


266  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


In  spite  of  these  apparently  self-evident  facts,  the 
organs  of  ruling  class  interests  in  the  South  kept  up  a 
strange  sort  of  bombastic  self-deception.  This  exag¬ 
gerated  self-confidence,  and  indifference  to  impending 
overthrow,  together  with  a  blindness  to  the  strength  of 
rising  classes,  has  been  an  almost  universal  characteristic 
of  ruling  classes.  An  editorial  in  DeBow’s  Review ,  in 
1862,  when  defeat  for  the  South  was  already  written 
plain  upon  her  industrial  and  social  life,  is  a  striking 
illustration  of  this  blind  overconfidence :  — 

“The  North  is  bankrupt.  Her  people  must  migrate 
to  the  West  or  starve.  The  census  of  i860  will  prove 
beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt  that  the  states  of  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  and  the  New  England  states  do 

well  stocked,  while  no  immigrants  from  Ireland  or  Germany  were  willing 
to  enter  into  a  competition  with  negro  slaves.  The  North  was  full  of 
manufactures  of  all  kinds;  the  South  had  very  few  of  any  kind.  The 
railroad  systems  of  the  North  were  far  more  perfect  and  extensive,  and 
the  roads  were  much  better  supplied  with  rolling  stock  and  all  necessary 
apparatus.  The  North  was  infinitely  richer  than  the  South  in  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  grain  and  meat,  and  the  boasted  value  of  the  South’s  great 
staple  —  cotton  —  sank  out  of  sight  when  the  blockade  closed  the  south¬ 
ern  ports  to  all  commerce. 

“  Accompanying  these  greater  material  resources,  there  existed  in  the 
North  a  much  larger  measure  of  business  capacity  than  was  to  be  found 
in  the  South.  .  .  .  The  great  merchants  and  managers  of  large  rail¬ 
roads  and  other  similar  enterprizes,  in  the  North  were  able  to  render 
valuable  assistance  to  the  men  who  administered  the  State  and  National 
governments.  .  .  .”  Page  101  :  “  The  Mercantile  marine  of  the  United 
States,  which  in  1861  was  second  only  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  was  almost 
wholly  owned  in  the  North.  It  was  chiefly  in  the  New  England  states 
that  the  ships  were  built.  The  sailors,  so  far  as  they  were  Americans 
at  all,  and  the  greater  part  of  them  were  Americans,  were  Northerners. 
The  owners  were  nearly  all  merchants  in  the  North  Atlantic  cities. 
Hence  the  government  had  no  difficulty  in  recruiting  the  navy  to  any 
extent,  both  in  officers  and  men,  from  a  class  thoroughly  familiar  with 
the  sea.” 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  267 

t 

not  produce  annually  enough  meat  and  bread  to  feed 
their  population  for  six  months  in  the  year,  and  (except 
for  a  little  wool)  produce  nothing  with  which  to  clothe 
them.  Their  soil  is  extremely  sterile,  and  it  would 
require  many  years  manuring  to  make  it  capable  of  sup¬ 
porting  the  present  population.  They  cannot  produce 
their  own  food  and  clothing  and  will  have  nothing 
wherewith  to  purchase  it.  The  cotton  and  tobacco  crop 
of  the  South  for  a  single  year  would  sell  for  four  times 
as  much  as  all  the  specie  currency  in  the  States  we  have 
mentioned.  They  will  require  every  cent  of  this  specie 
for  home  use,  at  least  during  the  war.  Their  manufac¬ 
tures  will  sell  only  in  the  Northwest,  and  there  they  can 
sell  but  a  few  of  the  cheapest  and  coarsest  kind  —  not 
one  quarter  enough  to  supply  the  deficiency  of  food  and 
clothing.  Their  coarse  cottons  were  the  only  articles 
which  they  could  sell  in  the  markets  of  the  world  before 
secession.  Now  the  raw  cotton  will  cost  them  so  much 
that  they  will  no  longer  be  able  to  sell  cotton  fabrics 
abroad.  Their  local  wealth,  derived  from  houses,  fac¬ 
tories,  railroads,  etc.,  ceased  to  exist  the  instant  seces¬ 
sion  became  an  accomplished  fact.  Their  mercantile 
marine  is  the  only  thing  they  can  sell  in  foreign  markets, 
and  as  they  will  have  no  further  use  for  it  at  home,  they 
should  sell  it  as  speedily  as  possible.  The  South  will 
need  it  all,  and  would  buy  it,  to  carry  on  that  very  trade 
which  secession  has  transferred  to  her  from  the  North.” 

Some  idea  of  the  value  of  knowledge  transmitted 
through  class  interests  is  gained  when  it  is  remembered 
that  the  writer  of  this  was  the  Commissioner  of  the 
census  in  i860  and  was  generally  looked  upon  as  one  of 
the  ablest  students  of  economic  and  political  conditions. 


268  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


The  Southern  rulers  did  not  believe  that  a  united 
North  would  resist  separation.  Much  dependence  was 
placed  upon  the  strong  ties  of  commercial  interest  that 
bound  whole  sections  of  the  North  to  the  South.  This 
dependence  was  by  no  means  wholly  misplaced. 
Throughout  the  war  there  were  many  sections  of  the 
North  where  the  tide  of  Southern  sympathy  ran  high. 
In  every  case  it  will  be  found  that  these  sections  were 
bound  to  the  South  and  to  the  system  of  chattel  slavery 
by  economic  ties.1 

When  broad  class  interests  are  sharply  threatened, 
such  exceptions  become  of  small  importance.  In  time 
of  great  class  conflicts,  the  representatives  of  dominant 
class  interests  are  ruthless  in  their  suppression  of  diver¬ 
gent  individual  or  group  interests,  whether  these  be  of 
“Tories,”  “copperheads,”  or  “scabs.”  If  public  opinion 
does  not  suffice  to  suppress  all  expression  of  revolt 
against  the  general  class  interest,  then  this  opinion  is  at 
once  reenforced  by  all  the  measures  of  group  defense. 
This  is  the  reason  why  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter 
caused  such  an  instantaneous  crystallization  of  “union” 
sentiment  in  the  North  and  of  “Southern  patriotism” 
in  the  slave  states. 

As  soon  as  the  two  systems  of  industry  were  definitely 
pitted  against  each  other,  the  tremendous  superiority  of 
the  wage-labor  system  appeared. 

Chattel  slavery  in  America  was  an  historical  atavism, 
and  not  a  stage  in  social  evolution.  It  came  many 
generations  after  the  disappearance  of  the  era  of  which 
chattel  slavery  was  an  essential  foundation.  It  came 
because  of  the  great  profits  which  the  raising  of  one 

1  Brown,  “The  Lower  South  in  American  History,”  pp.  59-60. 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  269 

crop  in  the  midst  (of  an  otherwise  capitalist  society 
produced.  This  social  reversion  made  the  South  indus¬ 
trially  dependent  upon  the  capitalist  societies  that  were 
its  workshops.  When  the  access  to  these  workshops 
was  stopped,  the  South  became  almost  helpless.  It  was 
not  quite  helpless.  The  first  effect  of  isolation  and  war 
was,  as  always,  to  hasten  industrial  evolution,  and 
especially  to  force  artificially  the  growth  of  machine 
production.1 

No  opportunity  was  offered  for  even  this  accelerated 
evolution  to  produce  any  important  results.  Time  was 
not  given  to  construct  mills  and  machines  and  to  develop 
the  skilled  artisans  and  to  organize  the  industrial  and 
distributing  machinery  essential  to  capitalized  industry. 
From  the  first  the  Northern  campaigns  were  directed 
toward  the  disorganization  and  disintegration  of  all 
germs  of  industrial  life. 

The  Mississippi  was  the  great  artery  of  internal 
Southern  trade.  When  armies  to  the  north  and  the 
blockade  on  the  sea  had  stopped  foreign  trade,  the 
possession  of  that  river  by  the  Federal  forces  prevented 


1  Walter  E.  Fleming,  “Industrial  Development  in  Alabama  during 
the  Civil  War,”  in  South  Atlantic  Quarterly ,  July,  1904,  p.  267:  “Both 
the  state  and  the  Confederate  government  encouraged  manufactures 
by  legislation.  .  .  .  Factories  were  soon  in  operation  all  over  the  state, 
especially  in  central  Alabama.  In  all  places  where  there  were  govern¬ 
ment  factories  there  were  also  factories  conducted  by  private  individ¬ 
uals.  In  1861  there  were  factories  at  Tallahassee,  Autauganville,  and 
Pottsville,  with  23,000  spindles  and  800  employees,  which  could  make 
5000  yards  of  good  cloth  a  day.  And  other  cotton  mills  were  established 
as  early  as  1861.  The  federals  burned  these  buildings  and  destroyed 
the  machinery.  There  was  the  most  unsparing  hostility  displayed  by 
the  Northern  armies  to  this  branch  of  industry.  They  destroyed  in¬ 
stantly  every  cotton  factory  within  their  reach.” 


270  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


even  the  local  circulation  of  commodities  which  would 
have  maintained  at  least  a  semblance  of  industrial  life. 

The  army  of  the  West  under  Grant  captured  Vicks¬ 
burg  in  July,  1863,  and  the  Mississippi  became  a  Union 
stream.  This  also  separated  the  eastern  and  larger  sec¬ 
tion  of  the  Confederacy  from  its  granary  and  provision 
supply  —  Texas.1  With  the  essential  foreign  trade  cut 
off  and  the  principal  channels  of  internal  trade  disrupted, 
the  industrial  destruction  of  the  South  was  completed 
by  Sherman’s  “ march  to  the  sea,”  which  destroyed  the 
beginnings  of  the  factory  system  and  the  already  imper¬ 
fect  railroad  system. 

Military  strength  rests  upon  an  industrial  base.  The 
Civil  War  was  decided  far  from  the  noise  of  exploding 
powder  and  blaring  bands  and  flowing  flags.  In  the 
South  the  industrial  base  was  a  miserable  makeshift  at 
the  best,  a  crumbling  hulk  at  the  finish. 

Modern  industrial  society  is  built  upon  an  iron  frame¬ 
work.  Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  the  weakness 
of  Southern  industrial  life  than  the  futile,  frantic  efforts 
made  to  secure  iron. 

“In  a  paper  read  before  a  railroad  conference  in 
Richmond,”  says  Rhodes,  “it  is  suggested  that  the  gov¬ 
ernment  make  a  public  appeal  for  all  the  cast  and 
wrought  iron  scrap  on  the  farms,  in  the  yards  and 
houses  of  the  Confederacy,  and  that  it  establish  a  sys¬ 
tem  for  the  collection  from  the  country,  cities,  towns, 
and  villages  of  ‘broken  and  worn-out  plows,  plow  points, 
hoes,  spades,  axes,  broken  stoves,  household  and  kitchen 
utensils/  with  promise  of  adequate  compensation.  The 
rails  of  the  street  railroad  in  Richmond  were  taken  up 
1  Rebellion  Records,  Series  I,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  119,  122. 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  271 


to  be  made  into  armor  for  a  gunboat.  The  planters  of 
Alabama,  in  the  very  regions  where  iron  ore  existed  in 
abundance  underground,  could  not  get  iron  enough  to 
make  and  repair  their  agricultural  implements.” 

By  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  the  railroad  had  already 
become  the  most  important  tool  of  an  industrially  in¬ 
terdependent  society.  In  railroads  the  South  was  at  a 
miserable  disadvantage  in  the  beginning,  and  every  day 
aggravated  that  disadvantage.  Mileage,  already  too 
little,  grew  less  before  the  ravages  of  Northern  armies 
and  the  paucity  of  Southern  resources.  The  war  dis¬ 
solved  the  loose  beginnings  of  systems  into  their  feeble 
isolated  elements.1  A  defective  and  scanty  equipment 
quickly  deteriorated  from  its  original  low  standard  into 
almost  complete  uselessness.2  The  workshops  for  the 
manufacture  and  repair  of  equipment  were  in  the  North, 
and  the  South  was  unable  to  improve  or  even  maintain 
the  scanty  rolling  stock  possessed  at  the  time  of  secession. 

The  postal  system  of  the  North  looks  poor  when 

1  Schwab,  “The  Confederate  States  of  America,”  pp.  272-273. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  274.  Rhodes,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  V, 
p.  384 :  “In  1861  the  railroads  had  already  begun  to  deteriorate,  and  as 
the  years  went  on  the  condition  got  worse  and  worse.  ...  An  estimate 
in  detail  of  the  capacity  of  34  railroads  was  made  to  the  Secretary  of 
War  (in  1863)  which  showed  on  an  average  of  the  whole  less  than  two 
freight  trains  daily  each  way,  each  train  carrying  122  tons;  and  this 
estimate  was  undoubtedly  too  high  to  apply  to  regular  operations  through¬ 
out  the  year.  From  everywhere  came  complaints.  Cities  wanted  food 
which  the  railroads  could  not  bring.  In  January,  1864,  it  was  said  that 
corn  was  selling  at  $1  to  $2  a  bushel  in  southwestern  Georgia  and  at 
$12  to  $15  in  Virginia.  Another  Richmond  authority  at  the  close  of 
that  year  was  sure  that  every  one  would  have  enough  to  eat  if  food  could 
be  properly  distributed.  The  defective  transportation  was  strikingly 
emphasized  when  Sherman’s  army  in  Georgia  revelled  in  plenty  while 
Lee’s  soldiers  almost  starved  in  Virginia.” 


272 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


viewed  from  to-day’s  vantage  point.  It  was  infinitely 
superior  to  that  of  the  South.  The  Confederate  consti¬ 
tution  required  the  postal  service  to  be  always  self- 
supporting.  To  meet  this  condition  letter  postage  was 
placed  at  five  cents  per  half  ounce  for  less  than  five 
hundred  miles  and  ten  cents  for  greater  distances. 
When  even  these  rates  failed  to  pay  expenses,  they  were 
doubled. 

In  the  financial  resources  which  are  drawn  from  in¬ 
dustrial  development  the  South  was  even  more  strikingly 
inferior.  Although  this  section  had  the  sympathy  of  the 
European  industrial  and  commercial  rivals  of  the  North, 
England  in  particular,  yet  this  sympathy  did  not  lead 
them  to  purchase  Confederate  bonds  in  large  quantities. 
There  was  no  powerful  banking  class  in  the  South  to 
gain  profits  for  its  members  and  furnish  resources  to  the 
government  by  great  financial  operations  such  as  are 
essential  to  the  conduct  of  a  great  war. 

The  one  important  Southern  asset  was  cotton.  Later 
writers,  with  that  wise  foresight  that  comes  so  clearly 
after  the  events  are  long  past,  have  often  pointed  out 
that  had  the  Confederate  government  seized  all  the 
cotton  possible  during  the  months  after  secession,  and 
before  the  blockade  was  declared,  and  shipped  it  to  Eng¬ 
land,  that  cotton  could  have  been  drawn  against  for 
many  millions  of  much  needed  dollars.  But  Southern 
economic  philosophy  was  as  atavistic  as  its  social  sys¬ 
tem,  and,  with  a  strange  revival  of  a  long  dead  Mer¬ 
cantilism,  the  Confederates  imagined  they  could  compel 
the  weaving  nations  to  come  to  their  relief  by  withhold¬ 
ing  the  raw  material  for  the  looms.  So  the  South  fell 
into  the  trap  of  its  opponent,  and  aided  the  Northern 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  273 

blockade  by  forbidding  the  export  of  cotton.  By  the 
time  the  foolishness  of  this  policy  had  become  apparent 
the  tentacles  of  the  Northern  navy  had  tightened  until 
the  harbors  of  the  South  were  closed  save  to  the  highly 
hazardous  and  expensive  commerce  of  the  blockade 
runners. 

Since  there  was  no  class  of  profit-takers  at  home  or 
abroad,  both  able  and  willing  to  purchase  Confederate 
bonds,  the  government  was  soon  compelled  to  fall  back 
upon  the  forced  loans  of  fiat  money.  Later  this  was 
supplemented  by  an  economic  reversion  to  the  stage  of 
barter  and  commodity  currency.  Bonds  were  exchanged 
for  and  taxes  collected  in  commodities  (especially  cotton, 
of  course),  and  the  government  accumulated  great 
quantities  of  commodities  whose  market  was  barred  by 
Federal  gunboats.1 

When  defeat  was  seen  to  be  inevitable  the  whole 
Confederacy  collapsed.  The  currency  lost  all  value,  and 
nearly  as  many  soldiers  deserted  and  returned  to  their 
homes  as  remained  to  be  surrendered  to  Federal  generals. 
There  are  rumors  that  these  general  desertions  were  due 
to  the  spreading  of  the  idea  that  “this  is  a  rich  man’s 
war  and  a  poor  man’s  fight,”  and  that  non-slaveholding 
soldiers  left  because  they  had  come  to  realize  their  non¬ 
interest  in  the  war.2  Unfortunately  there  seems  to  be 
little  contemporary  evidence  of  such  intelligence.  The 
South  was  defeated  because  its  social  life  rested  upon  a 
lower,  more  undeveloped,  less  perfectly  organized  and 
more  essentially  atavistic  industrial  base  than  that  of 
the  North. 

1  “  Cambridge  Modern  History/’  Vol.  Ill,  p.  610. 

2  James  S.  Pike’s  “The  Prostrate  State,”  p.  75. 


274  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


There  was  one  fact  which,  had  there  been  any  to  read 
its  significance  in  the  light  of  historical  evolution  through 
class  struggles,  would  have  been  seen  to  be  darkly  por¬ 
tentous  for  the  negro.  This  was  the  fact  that  there 
were  no  slave  revolts  during  the  war.1  The  goblin  that 
had  kept  the  South  in  trembling  terror  for  a  half  a  cen¬ 
tury  was  seen  to  be  the  phantom  created  by  a  guilty 
conscience.  The  fact  was  more  sinister  in  its  significance 
for  the  black.  His  inaction  in  time  of  crisis,  his  failure 
to  play  any  part  in  the  struggle  that  broke  his  shackles, 
told  the  world  that  he  was  not  of  those  who  to  free  them¬ 
selves  would  strike  a  blow. 

Representatives  of  a  ruling  class,  both  North  and 
South,  have  praised  him  for  his  “ loyalty”  and  “ fidelity ” 
in  a  time  of  danger.  At  the  same  time  this  same  ruling 
class  has  shown  its  contempt  for  him  by  taking  from  him 
many  of  the  rights  tossed  him  as  incidental  to  the  game 
of  war.  Among  the  rights  so  tossed  him  was  freedom 
from  chattel  slavery.  Emancipation  was  not  granted  to 
help  the  negro,  but  to  hurt  the  South.  That  it  came 
too  late  to  have  much  effect  even  in  that  direction  may 
be  judged  from  the  fact  that  the  Confederate  Congress 
long  debated  the  question  of  freeing,  and  even  arming, 
the  slaves  as  a  means  of  gaining  European  sympathy. 

Not  only  were  Northern  resources  vastly  superior  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war ;  but  war  under  wage  labor, 
unless  pushed  to  a  degree  of  exhaustion  not  attained  even 
by  the  stupendous  struggle  of  the  Civil  War,  so  far  from 
impoverishing  or  weakening,  actually  enriches  and 
strengthens  the  dominant  class. 

The  panic  that  began  in  1857  reached  its  most  acute 

1  Rhodes,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  V,  pp.  460-464. 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  275 

and  depressing  stage  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  It  is 
this  fact  that  is  largely  responsible  foi;  the  “hard  times” 
that  are  associated  with  the  first  years  of  the  war.  At 
the  very  time  when  the  military  outlook  was  darkest  for 
the  North,  industrial  recovery  began.1  The  momentum 
of  the  upward  movement  was  much  accelerated  by  the 
military  operations.  The  vast  armies  in  the  field,  aver¬ 
aging  a  million  and  a  half  men  from  the  North  alone,2 
and  making  no  account  of  the  large  numbers  indirectly 
connected  with  military  operations  and  withdrawn  from 
productive  industry,  created  a  tremendous  market 
“foreign”  to  the  direct  industrial  process.  This  un¬ 
productive  mass  absorbed  such  a  quantity  of  the  products 
of  labor,  that  a  surfeited  market  was  almost  impossible. 
Consequently  the  surplus  value  produced  by  the  workers 
who  remained  in  the  fields  and  the  factories,  using  the 
newly  invented  machinery  with  multiplied  productive 
power,  flowed  in  gigantic  streams  into  the  pockets  of  the 
Northern  capitalists.3 

The  Civil  War  brought  the  era  of  great  manufacturing 
plants.  It  made  iron  and  wool  the  rulers  of  the  industrial 
world,  and  therefore  the  political  rulers,  and  the  makers  of 
tariffs  and  masters  of  appropriation  bills  for  two  genera¬ 
tions.  The  demand  for  uniforms  and  blankets  for  the 
armies  guaranteed  an  almost  exhaustless  market  for  cloth 
of  an  unchanging  character.  Mill  after  mill  ran  month 
after  month  exclusively  upon  goods  for  the  armies  in 
the  field.  Cotton  mills  were  remodeled  to  enable  them 
to  weave  wool.  Hundreds  of  new  establishments  were 
built.  All  paid  great  dividends  upon  the  capital  in- 

1  Rhodes,  loc.  cit.,  Vol.  V,  pp.  198-199.  2  Ibid.,  p.  186. 

*  David  A.  Wells,  “Our  Burden  and  our  Strength.” 


276  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


vested.  The  following  table  shows  the  sudden  increased 
consumption  of  wool  by  American  mills  during  the  Civil 
War : 1  — 


Year  Pounds  Used 

1840 . 45,615,326 

1850 . 71,176,355 

i860 . 85,334,876 

1863  . 180,057,156 

1864  . 213,871,157 


The  production  of  profits  and  the  creation  of  new  in¬ 
dustries  in  connection  with  wool  was  not  confined  to  the 
process  of  weaving.  The  necessity  for  making  such  great 
quantities  of  identical  suits  brought  into  existence  the 
ready-made  clothing  industry.  The  mechanical  founda¬ 
tion  for  this  industry  had  been  laid  by  the  invention  of  the 
sewing  machine,  which  had  been  in  process  since  1840, 
and  been  perfected  to  a  practicable  working  machine  by 
Elias  Howe  in  1849. 2 

The  great  profits  in  the  production  of  genuine  woolen 
goods  could  not  fail  to  create  a  fraudulent  imitative  in¬ 
dustry.  The  war,  with  its  scarcity  of  cotton  and  high 
price  for  wool,  created  the  great  American  “ shoddy” 
industry.3 

Iron  and  steel  completed  their  conquest  of  the  indus¬ 
trial  field  during,  and  largely  because  of,  the  Civil  War. 

1  Statistical  Abstract  1900;  Bolles,  “Industrial  History,”  pp.  382- 
383 ;  Census  of  1890,  “  Manufactures,”  p.  8;  Levasseur,  “  The  American 
Workman,”  p.  26. 

2  Sewing  machines  using  the  “chain  stitch”  had  been  in  use  for  many 
years  and  had  been  gradually  improved.  Howe’s  contribution  was  the 
“lock  stitch”  with  two  threads.  See  article  “Sewing  Machines” 
in  “  Encyclopedia  Americana  ”  ;  also  Fite,  “Social  and  Industrial  Condi¬ 
tion  in  the  North  during  the  Civil  War,”  pp.  88-89. 

*  Census  of  1890,  “  Manufacturing  Industries,”  Vol.  Ill,  p.  38. 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  277 


The  demand  for  small  arms  and  artillery,  wagons,  rail¬ 
road  supplies,  and  ironclads  made  this  the  Golden  Age 
of  profits  in  iron.  Not  only  did  existing  mills  find  their 
capacities  taxed  at  exorbitant  prices;  new  ones  were 
erected  almost  by  the  hundreds,  and  the  earth  was 
searched  for  ore  supplies.  In  this  search  the  great  ore 
beds  of  Lake  Superior,  the  possession  of  which  insured 
the  establishment  of  a  world- wide  steel  trust  in  the  future, 
were  discovered  and  opened  up  on  a  large  scale.1 

The  wage  system  gains  much  of  its  power  from  its 
ability  to  substitute  machines  for  men.  The  armies 
taken  from  industry  left  an  increased  demand  for  labor 
power.  This  demand  was  met  by  increasing  the  pro¬ 
ductive  power  of  those  left  behind  through  improved 
machinery.  The  records  of  the  patent  office  show  that 
a  quick  response  was  made  to  the  premium  that  was 
thus  placed  upon  invention.  In  1861  there  were  3340 
patents  granted.  Four  years  later,  when  the  patents 
from  the  inventions  made  during  the  war  were  reaching 
the  patent  office  in  large  numbers,  and  while  the  South¬ 
ern  states  were  outside  the  Union  and  more  than  a  million 
of  the  men  at  the  North  were  in  military  service,  the 
remnant  left  behind  took  out  6220  patents.2 

1  “  One  Hundred  Years  of  American  Commerce,”  p.  325  ;  Bolles,  “In¬ 
dustrial  History,”  pp.  208-209;  J.  H.  Kennedy,  “The  Opening  up  of 
the  Lake  Superior  Iron  Region,”  Magazine  of  American  History,  Vol.  II, 
P-  357- 

2  David  A.  Wells,  “Recent  Experiences  of  the  United  States”;  Report 
Commissioner  of  Patents,  1863,  p.  47  :  “Although  the  country  has  been 
engaged  in  a  war  which  would  have  seemed  to  tax  to  the  utmost  all  its 
energies,  the  applications  for  patents  for  the  last  year  have  been  equalled 
in  only  two  former  years;  and  yet  one  half  of  our  territory,  shrouded 
in  the  cloud  of  rebellion,  has  contributed  nothing  to  invention  or  human 
improvement.” 


278  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


It  was  this  power  of  the  North  to  produce,  this 
peculiarity  of  the  wage  system  that  draws  strength  from 
the  murderous  waste  of  war,  that  gave  that  section  its 
power.  The  war,  was  won  as  much  by  the  industrial 
workers  who  toiled  in  the  shop  (and  whose  death  rate 
and  percentage  of  injured  was  fully  as  high  as  that  of  the 
workers  in  the  military  ranks)  as  by  those  who  carried 
guns.  Yet  pensions  and  glory  are  reserved  exclusively 
for  those  who  took  up  the  trade  of  killing. 

Perhaps  the  strongest  battalions  in  this  industrial 
army  that  fought  for  the  North  were  on  the  farms.  It 
has  been  said  that  “the  war  was  won  by  the  McCormick 
reaper,”  and  the  statement  is  more  nearly  true  than  most 
popular  generalizations  on  history.  It  was  not  alone  that 
the  new  horse-drawn  machinery  multiplied  the  power  of 
the  workers  in  the  fields.  It  transformed  the  aged,  the 
women,  and  the  children,  whom  the  marching  armies 
had  left  behind,  into  producers  more  effective  than  strong 
men  had  been  with  the  former  tools.  So  it  was  that  the 
wartime  crops,  raised  by  the  weakest  fraction  of  the  in¬ 
dustrial  population,  were  greater  than  any  raised  by 
adult  skilled  farmers  in  former  years.1 

1  Commissioner  of  Patents,  Report  for  1863,  p.  21 :  “The  most  strik¬ 
ing  fact  connected  with  this  class  (agricultural  implements)  is  the  rapid 
increase  of  applications  filed.  Notwithstanding  half  a  million  of  our 
agriculturists  have  been  withdrawn  from  the  farm  to  engage  in  military 
service,  still  the  number  of  applications  for  patents  on  agricultural 
implements  (exclusive  of  reapers,  beehives,  horse  hay-forks,  and  horse 
hay-rakes)  has  increased  from  350  in  1851  to  502  in  1863.  At  first 
thought  such  a  result  would  seem  an  anomaly,  but  it  is  this  large  drain 
upon  the  laboring  classes  which  has  caused  a  greater  demand  than  usual 
for  labor-saving  machinery.  The  increased  demand  for  farm  products, 
and  their  higher  price  in  consequence,  have  also  doubtless  helped  to 
increase  the  number  of  labor-saving  machines.” 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  279 


These  bountiful  crops  found  a  ready  market  at  high 
prices.  To  the  increased  demand  from  the  unproductive 
armies  in  the  field  was  added  an  extra  call  from  Europe 
due  to  poor  harvests.  The  farmer,  like  the  industrial 
capitalist,  drew  prosperity  from  the  war.  His  influence 
in  government  was  still  considerable,  as  is  seen  by  the 
establishment  in  1862  of  a  national  department  of  agri¬ 
culture  and  the  subsidizing  the  state  agricultural  colleges. 

The  influence  of  the  war,  through  its  effect  upon  manu¬ 
facturing,  transportation,  and  agriculture,  had  far-reach¬ 
ing  effects  upon  the  movements  of  population  and  the 
relative  strength  of  sections  and  cities. 

That  the  states  around  the  Great  Lakes  were  not  mis¬ 
taken  in  deciding  that  their  material  interests  united 
them  with  the  system  of  wage  labor  is  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  to  no  other  section  did  the  Civil  War  bring  such 
great  material  growth.  When  the  Mississippi  was  com¬ 
pletely  closed  to  traffic  and  the  South  was  cut  off  as  a 
market,  the  lake  ports  became  the  only  gateways  for 
the  tremendous  commerce  of  the  broad  agricultural 
Hinterland }  Chicago  and  Cleveland  leaped  at  once 

1  Fite,  “Social  and  Industrial  Conditions  in  the  North  during  the 
Civil  War,”  p.  67.  Speaking  of  Chicago  :  “  This  city  had  the  unique 
distinction  among  the  growing  western  cities  of  possessing  no  railroad 
indebtedness,  while  her  rivals,  St.  Louis,  Milwaukee,  Detroit,  and  some 
smaller  cities,  weighed  down  by  debts  to  obtain  the  few  railroads  they 
had,  were  even  compelled  to  call  upon  their  respective  states  to  issue 
many  millions  of  dollars  of  bonds  in  their  aid.  The  railroads  created 
Chicago,  not  Chicago  the  railroads.  It  was  a  natural  trade  center  to 
which  in  the  short  space  of  ten  years  seven  new  trunk  lines  from  the  South, 
West  and  North  were  built,  and  from  which  three  trunk  lines  and  the 
Lakes  led  eastward.  As  late  as  1850  the  city  celebrated  the  arrival  of 
the  first  train.  In  1864  it  was  entered  by  over  ninety  trains  daily.” 
James  F.  Rhodes,  in  American  Magazine  of  History,  II,  p.  337:  “The 
turning  point  of  the  material  development  of  Cleveland  wras  reached  in 


280  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


from  trade  centers  to  great  crude  industrial  centers. 
The  flow  of  agricultural  products  called  into  existence 
the  outline  of  that  great  radial  system  of  railroads  that 
now  feed  those  cities,  and  has  been  responsible  for  their 
growth. 

The  manipulation  of  war  finances  poured  such  a  golden 
flood  into  the  vaults  of  a  clique  of  New  York  bankers  as 
to  give  them  domination  within  the  capitalist  ranks.1 
Inflation  of  the  currency  with  the  accompanying  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  gamble  in  gold,  the  manipulation  of  internal 
revenue  taxes,  vied  with  corrupt  military  contracts  and 
contraband  trade  in  cotton  in  contributing  to  that  “  primi¬ 
tive  accumulation,”  upon  which  American  fortunes  are 
based.2 

So  tremendous  was  the  graft  in  connection  with  con¬ 
tracts  for  military  supplies  that  most  historians  draw 

i860.  ...  In  i860  the  coal  and  iron  industries  had  only  begun  to  be 
developed,  and  the  war  stimulated  these  manufactures  at  Cleveland  as 
elsewhere.  .  .  .  The  war  found  Cleveland  a  commercial  city  and  left  it 
a  manufacturing  city.” 

1  A.  S.  Bolles,  “Financial  History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  Ill, 
p.  20,  tells  of  a  meeting  of  New  York  bankers  with  the  assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  where  the  arrangements  were  made  for  the  handling 
of  the  war  bonds,  by  which  these  bankers  controlled  the  sale  of  the 
securities. 

2  “United  States  Cobden  Club  Essays,”  Series  1871-1872,  pp.  479- 
480 :  “  Prices  rose  rapidly  with  every  increase  in  taxation,  or  additional 
issues  of  paper  money;  and,  under  such  circumstances,  the  burdens 
of  the  war  were  not  regarded  by  the  majority  of  producers  as  oppressive. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  counting  the  taxes  as  elements  of  cost,  and  reckon¬ 
ing  profit  as  a  percentage  on  the  whole,  it  was  very  generally  the  case 
that  the  aggregate  profits  of  the  producers  were  actually  enhanced  by 
reason  of  the  taxes  to  an  extent  considerably  greater  than  they  would 
have  been  had  no  taxes  whatever  been  collected.  Indeed,  it  was  not 
infrequently  the  case  that  the  manufacturers  themselves  were  the  most 
strenuous  advocates  for  the  continued  and  rapid  increase  of  taxation.” 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  281 


back  in  horror  when  they  have  lifted  but  a  corner  of  the 
thick  blanket  of  concealment  that  those  who  profited 
by  the  plunder  have  drawn  over  the  mess.  One  Congres¬ 
sional  committee,  headed  by  Robert  Dale  Owen,  son  of 
Robert  Owen  the  Utopian  Socialist,  uncovered  frauds 
of  $17,000,000  in  $50,000,000  worth  of  contracts. 

Graft  rendered  the  very  weapons  of  warfare  as  dan¬ 
gerous  to  those  who  held  them  as  to  those  against  whom 
they  were  supposed  to  be  directed.  Carbines,  that  be¬ 
fore  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  had  been  condemned  by 
the  War  Department,  and  sold  as  condemned  weapons 
at  the  almost  nominal  price  of  $3.50  each,  were  resold  by 
the  buyers  to  the  very  government  that  had  condemned 
them  for  $22.00  each.1 

Rivaling  even  the  military  contracts  as  a  source  of 
“  primitive  accumulation  ”  by  corruption,  treason,  and 
theft,  was  the  contraband  trade  in  cotton  carried  on  by 
Northern  merchants  in  illegal  collusion  with  Federal 
army  officers.  To  prevent  the  exportation  of  cotton  was 
one  of  the  main  objects  of  the  Federal  campaign.  To 
assist  in  the  marketing  of  that  cotton  was  treason,  “  giv¬ 
ing  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy.”  But  cotton  was  less 
than  ten  cents  a  pound  in  the  South  and  more  than  fifty 
cents  a  pound  in  New  England.  Before  such  a  profit 
capitalist  patriotism  has  never  yet  stood  unscathed. 
Soon  “  permits  ”  began  to  be  issued  for  cotton  to  pass 
through  the  Northern  lines.  Then  the  floodgates  of 
corruption  broke  and  the  carnival  of  profit  was  on. 
Congressman  Ten  Eyck  of  New  Jersey  stated  upon  the 
floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives:  — 

“We  have  .  .  .  prolonged  the  rebellion,  and  strength- 
1  Rhodes,  “  History  of  United  States,”  Vol.  V,  pp.  213-221. 


282 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


ened  the  arm  of  traitors  by  allowing  the  very  trade,  in 
consequence  of  which  not  only  union  men  and  women, 
but  rebels  of  the  deepest  dye,  have  been  fed  and  have  had 
their  pockets  lined  with  greenbacks,  by  means  of  which 
they  could  carry  on  the  rebellion.  Under  the  permission 
to  trade,  supplies  have  not  only  gone  in,  but  bullets  and 
powder,  instruments  of  death  which  our  heroic  soldiers 
have  been  compelled  to  meet  upon  almost  every  field  of 
battle  in  which  they  have  been  engaged  in  the  South.  .  .  . 
I  am  greatly  afraid  that  in  some  quarters  the  movements 
of  our  armies  have  been  conducted  more  with  a  view  to 
carry  on  trade  .  .  .  than  to  strike  down  the  rebels.  .  .  . 
The  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi  along  the  line  of  the 
permitted  trade  has  been  debauched ;  not  merely  the 
Treasury  agents,  .  .  .  but  men  engaged  in  carrying  our 
flag,  not  only  upon  the  land  but  out  upon  the  sea.” 

The  financing  of  the  war  not  only  created  a  whole  set 
of  banking  institutions 1  and  placed  them  in  the  control  of 
a  small  clique,2  but  an  enormous  national  debt  was  con¬ 
tracted  that  was  to  maintain  a  class  of  bondholders  for  a 
generation  and  more  to  come.  A.  S.  Bolles,  in  is  “  Finan¬ 
cial  History  of  the  United  States,”  estimates  the  total  ex¬ 
penditures  of  the  war  at  $6,189,929,908.  At  the  close  of 
the  war  the  national  debt  was  $2,773,236,174.  The 
workers  who  had  been  fighting  in  the  field  were  now 
compelled  to  join  an  army  of  industrial  toilers  engaged 
in  producing  the  interest  with  which  the  class  of  bond¬ 
holders  were  supported. 

Workingmen  made  up  the  military  armies  and  the 
industrial  armies  alike,  but  they  obtained  few  benefits 

1  The  present  system  of  banking  was  established  Feb.  25, 1863.  See 
“  Cambridge  Modern  History,”  Vol.  VII,  p.  571. 

2  Bolles,  “  Financial  History  of  the  United  States.” 


ARMED  CONFLICT  OF  SECTIONAL  INTERESTS  283 

from  the  war.  Some  of  the  few  organized  workers  of  the 
time  saw  this  and  protested  against  the  war.1 

The  “ antidraft  riots”  that  took  place  in  many 
cities,  and  especially  in  New  York,  partook  of  many  of 
the  characteristics  of  a  labor  movement.2  They  began 
with  a  general  strike,  or  an  attempt  at  such  a  strike. 
The  spokesmen  of  the  movement  were  insistent  in  their 
denunciation  of  the  “exemption  clauses”  that  enabled 
rich  men  to  escape  the  draft.  There  were  many  who 
demanded  that  “money  as  well  as  men  should  be 
drafted.”  3 

On  the  other  hand,  the  more  far-seeing  and  consciously 
revolutionary  element  among  Northern  workers  realized 
that  chattel  slavery  stood  in  the  way  of  progress.  The 
German  immigrants,  especially,  who  were  filled  with  the 
“spirit  of  ’48,”  enlisted  in  the  Union  army  almost  en 
masse .  The  presence  of  large  numbers  of  these  men  at 
St.  Louis  is  commonly  recognized  as  being  responsible 
for  the  defeat  of  secession  in  Missouri. 

In  Europe  the  Socialists,  and  nearly  the  whole  wage¬ 
working  class,  were  with  the  North.  It  was  the  cotton 
spinners  of  Lancashire  who,  believing  that  the  war  would 

1  Jas.  C.  Sylvis,  “Biography  of  Wm.  H.  Sylvis,”  p.  42:. “Among  the 
workingmen,  a  few  choice  spirits,  North  and  South,  knowing  that  all 
the  burdens  and  none  of  the  honors  of  war  are  entailed  upon  labor, 
were  engaged  in  an  effort  to  frustrate  the  plans  of  those  who  seemed  to 
desire,  and  whose  fanaticism  was  calculated  to  precipitate  hostilities.’’ 

2  See  “The  Volcano  under  the  City,”  by  “A  Volunteer  Special.” 

3  In  the  scrapbooks  collected  by  William  Sylvis,  now  in  the  Crerar 
Library,  Chicago,  there  is  a  clipping  (Vol.  12)  of  an  article  by  C.  Ben 
Johns,  Corresponding  Secretary  Pennsylvania  State  Labor  Union,  dis¬ 
cussing  a  plank  in  the  platform  of  the  National  Labor  Union,  from  which 
the  following  is  taken :  “  There  is  a  resolution  ...  in  which  we  demand 
that  in  time  of  war,  money  shall  be  drafted  as  well  as  men.” 


284  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

end  chattel  slavery,  starved  rather  than  see  work  come 
through  lifting  the  cotton  blockade.  When  the  capital¬ 
ists  of  England,  more  eager  to  defend  their  immediate 
profits  than  even  the  broad  interests  of  their  class,  would 
have  interfered  in  behalf  of  the  Confederacy,  it  was  these 
workers  who  stood  in  the  way  of  such  action,  and  not  the 
least  of  those  who  were  responsible  for  this  steadfast 
position  of  the  English  workers  was  the  founder  of  modern 
scientific  Socialism  —  Karl  Marx.1  He  worked  tire¬ 
lessly  to  this  end,  and  as  a  result  of  his  efforts  the  In¬ 
ternational  Workingmen’s  Association  (the  “Old  Inter¬ 
national”)  sent  a  resolution  of  sympathy  to  President 
Lincoln.  When  we  remember  the  strength  of  this  or¬ 
ganization  at  this  time,  its  widespread  influence  in  Eu¬ 
rope,  and  the  critical  moment  at  which  that  influence  was 
exerted,  it  seems  probable  that  it  had  as  much  to  do  with 
the  outcome  of  the  Civil  War  as  many  factors  to  which 
historians  have  given  much  greater  weight. 

Out  of  the  Civil  War  was  born  the  elements  of  present 
society.  It  created  the  great  capitalist  and  the  great 
industry  and  the  mechanical  foundation  upon  which 
these  rest.  It  placed  these  in  control  of  the  national 
government,  and  for  the  next  generation  capitalism  was 
to  find  its  greatest  development  in  the  nation  the  war  had 
maintained  as  a  unit. 


1  John  Spargo,  “Life  of  Karl  Marx,”  pp.  268-270. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


RECONSTRUCTION 

During  armed  conflict  the  commercial  and  industrial 
capitalist  skulks  in  the  background,  fattening  upon  the 
offal  of  war.  When  even  the  low  virtues  that  war  de¬ 
mands  were  no  longer  necessary  to  social  rulership,  these 
vultures  came  from  their  retreat  and  ruled  and  rioted  in 
plunder.  Part  of  that  ruling  and  rioting  made  up  what 
is  called  the  Reconstruction  Period. 

The  conquest  of  the  South  was  complete  and  crushing. 
The  old  ruling  class,  and  the  social  system  upon  which  it 
lived,  were  gone,  and  none  could  be  foolish  enough  to  ex¬ 
pect  its  restoration.  The  attitude  of  the  ruling  spirits 
of  the  South  may  be  judged  by  the  announcement  in  the 
first  number  of  a  new  series  of  DeBow’s  Review ,  ap¬ 
pearing  in  January,  1866,  and  which  reads  as  follows :  — 

“My  purpose  in  the  future  is  to  give  it  [the  Review]  a 
national  character ,  and  to  devote  all  of  my  energies  and 
resources  to  the  development  of  the  great  material  in¬ 
terests  of  the  Union.  .  .  . 

“  Regarding  the  issues  of  the  past  as  dead,  about  which 
a  practical  philosophy  will  not  dispute,  and  those  of  the 
present  as  living  and  potential,  it  is  the  part  of  the  Re¬ 
view  to  accept  in  good  faith  the  situation  and  deduce 
from  it  all  that  can  be  promotive  of  the  best  interests  of 
the  whole  country.” 

285 


286  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Northern  generals  who  were  stationed  in  the  South 
at  the  close  of  the  war  were  almost  unanimous  in  report¬ 
ing  that  the  former  Confederate  soldiers  and  officers  were 
willing  to  accept  the  results  of  the  defeat  they  had  suf¬ 
fered. 

The  passage  of  sectional  hatred  would,  however,  have 
thwarted  the  plans  of  a  small  but  powerful  division  of  the 
Northern  capitalists.  The  group  of  great  capitalists 
created  by  the  war  was  still  composed  of  too  few  persons, 
and  was  too  highly  competitive,  to  be  able  to  control  the 
national  government  under  normal  conditions. 

This  group  of  great  corporations,  whose  influence  was 
so  feared  by  Lincoln,  was  helpless  to  combat  the  small 
bourgeoisie  which  was  still  dominant  in  much  more  than 
a  majority  of  the  states.  The  abolition  of  slavery  raised* 
the  same  small  bourgeoisie  into  power  in  the  South.  Had 
the  South  been  permitted  to  return  to  the  Union  in  the 
simple  natural  manner  desired  by  Lincoln,1  there  would 
have  been  a  vast  fairly  uniform  body  of  voters  through¬ 
out  the  South  and  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley  who 
would  have  been  hostile  to  the  interests  of  the  great  capi- 

1  “  Complete  Works,”  Vol.  II,  p.  674.  Last  public  address  :  “We  all 
agree  that  the  seceded  states,  so-called,  are  out  of  their  proper,  practical 
relation  with  the  Union,  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government, 
civil  and  military  in  regard  to  those  states  is  to  again  get  them  into  that 
proper  practical  relation.  I  believe  that  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in 
fact  easier,  to  do  this  without  deciding,  or  even  considering,  whether 
these  states  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union.  Finding  themselves  safely 
at  home,  it  would  be  utterly  immaterial  whether  they  had  ever  been 
abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restoring  the  proper, 
practical  relations  between  these  States  and  the  Union,  and  each  forever 
after  innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing  the  acts  he 
brought  the  States  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave  them  proper 
assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of  it.” 


RECONSTRUCTION 


287 


talists.  The  Greenback  movement,  the  Union  Labor 
party  of  the  early  70’s,  and  the  widespread  antagonism 
to  the  clique  of  bondholders,  great  steel  and  woolen 
manufacturers,  and  government  contractors,  show  how 
real  was  this  danger  to  great  capitalist  interests. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  way  could  be  found  to  keep 
alive  and  aggravate  sectional  hatred,  and  to  keep  the 
Southern  states  from  the  Union  until  a  powerful  plutoc¬ 
racy  could  seize  upon  all  the  strategic  points  of  social 
control,  then  the  interests  of  rapidly  concentrating  wealth 
would  be  conserved.  It  is  not  necessary  to  conceive 
that  all  this  was  clearly  foreseen  and  made  the  basis  of 
conscious  social  action,  by  those  responsible  for  the  pro¬ 
gram  of  Reconstruction.  There  were  plenty  of  immedi¬ 
ate  material  advantages  for  individual  members  of  the 
class  whose  more  distant  interests  were  to  be  conserved 
which  led  to  the  same  end. 

There  were  still  prodigious  possibilities  of  plunder  in 
the  stricken  South.  There  were  hordes  of  picayune  polit¬ 
ical  camp  followers  hungry  for  pelf.  The  fanatical 
abolitionist,  to  whom  the  chattel  slaveholder  had  been 
a  demon,  and  the  purchaser  of  wage  slaves  a  public 
benefactor,  was  a  willing  tool  in  the  orgy  of  Reconstruc¬ 
tion.  To  these  could  be  called  the  support  of  all  that 
flock  of  vultures  that  was  to  glut  itself  upon  the  desola¬ 
tion  of  the  Southland. 

At  first  glance  there  would  seem  to  have  been  little 
left  in  the  South  worthy  the  attention  of  vandals.  Sel¬ 
dom  has  the  desolation  of  war  been  more  terrible,  for 
seldom  has  war  swept  over  as  complex  a  society,  where 
its  destruction  could  be  so  terrible.  For  compared  with 
the  societies  of  other  centuries  that  of  the  South  was 


288  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


complex,  however  simple  it  appears  when  contrasted  with 
that  of  to-day  or  with  the  contemporaneous  North. 

Almost  all  of  the  industrial  life  that  belonged  to 
recent  times  was  wiped  out  by  the  war.  It  would  be 
hard  to  paint  an  exaggerated  picture  of  the  conditions 
that  prevailed.  One  such  picture  has  been  given  by 
James  W.  Garner,  in  his  “  Reconstruction  in  Mississippi.” 
This  will  hold  good  for  the  entire  South  save  that  in  many 
states  where  the  operations  of  the  armies  had  been  more 
general,  the  devastation  and  social  disintegration  was 
much  greater.  He  says  of  Mississippi:  — 

“The  people  were  generally  impoverished ;  the  farms 
had  gone  to  waste,  the  fences  having  been  destroyed  by 
the  armies,  or  having  decayed  from  neglect;  the  fields 
were  covered  with  weeds  and  bushes;  farm  implements 
and  tools  were  gone,  so  that  there  were  barely  enough 
farm  animals  to  meet  the  demands  of  agriculture ;  busi¬ 
ness  was  at  a  standstill ;  banks  and  commercial  agencies 
had  either  suspended  or  closed  on  account  of  insolvency ; 
the  currency  was  in  a  wretched  condition;  .  .  .  there 
was  no  railway  or  postal  system  worth  speaking  of ;  only 
here  and  there  a  newspaper  running;  the  labor  system 
in  vogue  since  the  establishment  of  the  colonies  was 
completely  overturned ;  .  .  .  worse  than  all  this  was  the 
fact  that  about  one-third  of  the  white  bread-winners  of 
the  state  had  either  been  sacrificed  in  the  contest  or  were 
disabled  for  life,  so  that  they  could  not  longer  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  factors  in  the  work  of  economic  organization. 
.  .  .  The  number  of  dependent  orphans  alone  was  esti¬ 
mated  at  10,000.” 

Into  this  industrial  and  social  chaos  came  a  horde  of 
mercenary  Goths  and  Vandals.  They  were  released  upon 


RECONSTRUCTION  289 

this  desolated  land  as  a  part  of  the  political  coup  d’etat , 
by  which  the  present  ruling  class  attained  to  power. 

Had  President  Lincoln  lived,  it  seems  probable  that 
his  powerful  personal  following,  his  political  shrewdness, 
and  keen  tactful  insight  into  human  motives  might  have 
enabled  him  to  rally  the  interests  from  which  he  sprung, — 
the  pioneer,  farmer,  and  small  manufacturing  and  trading 
class,  —  and  joining  these  with  the  new-born  factory 
wageworking  class,  carried  through  his  policies.  But  he 
was  dead,  and  there  is  no  small  amount  of  evidence  tend¬ 
ing  to  show  that  the  shot  that  killed  him  came  from  the 
direction  of  Wall  Street  rather  than  Richmond. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  man  more  unsuited  to  take 
up  Lincoln’s  task  than  Andrew  Johnson.  Tactless, 
stubborn,  abusive,  quarrelsome  (aggravated  by  occa¬ 
sional  intoxication),  lacking  in  political  skill,  suspected 
of  Southern  sympathies  and  of  general  mediocre  ability, 
he  was  the  very  opponent  which  best  suited  the  purposes 
of  the  followers  of  Thad  Stevens,  the  Pennsylvania  iron¬ 
master. 

By  a  skillful  use  of  sectional  animosities  and  political 
alliances  the  great  capitalist  element  had  gained  control 
of  Congress.  The  war  it  had  waged  secretly  against 
Lincoln,  was  made  openly  and  boastingly  upon  John¬ 
son,  who  was  trying  to  continue  Lincoln’s  policies.  That 
he  was  so  following  Lincoln,  though  in  a  blundering,  tact¬ 
less  manner,  no  historian  of  to-day  would  deny. 

As  fast  as  the  rebellion  had  been  crushed,  Lincoln  had 
set  about  reorganizing  the  state  governments  in  a  simple, 
practical  manner.  This  was  a  natural  action  since  the 
whole  war  had  been  waged  upon  the  theory  that  a  state 

cannot  secede,  and  that  therefore  the  Southern  states 
u 


290 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


had  never  been  outside  the  Union.  The  national  govern¬ 
ment  had  been  conducting  the  war  under  the  clause  of 
the  constitution  giving  power  to  “  suppress  domestic 
insurrection”  in  any  state. 

While  the  states  were  de  facto  out  of  the  Union,  there¬ 
fore,  Congress,  courts,  and  army  had  declared  them 
firmly  inside.1  When  the  “ domestic  insurrection”  was 
suppressed,  and  the  state  governments  were  recognizing 
the  authority  of  the  national  government,  it  became  to  the 
interest  of  the  class  that  controlled  Congress  to  proceed 
upon  the  theory  that  these  states  were  now  outside  the 
Union. 

This  theory  was  translated  into  action  by  another 
coup  d’etat.  When  the  regularly  elected  representatives 
of  the  former  Confederate  states  presented  their  creden¬ 
tials  at  Washington,  the  clerk  of  the  House  of  Represen¬ 
tatives  under  the  instructions  of  the  so-called  “  Radical,” 
or  Stevens  wing  of  the  Republican  party,  refused  to  read 
their  names  when  calling  the  roll  of  the  new  House. 

A  law  was  then  forced  through  by  this  same  element 
(March  2,  1867,  nearly  three  years  after  the  war  had 
closed),  entirely  contrary  to  all  constitutional  provisions, 
and  therefore  strictly  revolutionary  in  character.  This 
law  wiped  out  state  governments  and  even  ignored  state 

1  The  Crittenden  Resolution,  adopted  by  large  majorities  of  both 
houses  of  Congress  in  July,  1861,  gives  the  theory  upon  which  the  war 
was  waged.  In  part  it  read  as  follows:  “That  this  war  is  not  waged 
on  their  part  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any  purpose  of  conquest 
or  subjugation,  or  purpose  of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights 
or  established  institutions  of  those  states,  but  to  defend  and  maintain 
the  supremacy  of  the  constitution,  and  to  preserve  the  union  with  all 
the  dignity,  equality  and  rights  of  the  several  states  unimpaired;  and 
that  as  soon  as  these  rights  are  accomplished  the  war  ought  to  cease.”  — 
“  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  I,  p.  118. 


RECONSTRUCTION 


291 


lines,  and  divided  the  South  into  five  military  districts. 
The  military  officers  in  charge  of  these  districts  were 
given  absolute  power  over  life,  liberty,  and  property,  save 
only  that  death  sentences  required  presidential  sanction. 

No  such  power  had  been  exercised  while  war  existed. 
It  was  conferred  now  long  after  peace  had  been  restored 
as  one  of  the  methods  by  which  the  present  capitalist 
class  captured  and  held  the  control  of  the  national  govern¬ 
ment. 

Lest  it  may  be  denied  that  such  was  the  purpose  of 
these  actions,  I  will  let  the  man  who  was  directing  this 
legislation  speak  for  himself.  Whatever  else  may  be 
said  of  Thad  Stevens,  friend  and  foe  alike  admit  his 
brutal  frankness.  Speaking  of  the  Southern  states  on 
the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  December  18, 
1865,  he  said :  — 

“They  ought  never  to  be  recognized  as  capable  of  act¬ 
ing  in  the  union,  or  being  counted  as  valid  states,  until 
the  constitution  shall  have  been  so  amended  as  to  make  it 
what  its  framers  intended;  and  so  as  to  secure  perma¬ 
nent  ascendency  to  the  party  of  the  union.” 

Again  on  January  3,  1867,  he  said,  speaking  for  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  the  Reconstruction  legislation:  — 

“Another  reason  is,  it  would  assure  the  ascendency 
of  the  union  party.” 

By  the  “party  of  the  union”  and  the  “union  party” 
he  meant,  and  intended  to  be  understood  as  meaning, 
the  “Radical”  wing  of  the  Republican  party. 

Having  eliminated  President  Johnson  by  well-nigh 
successful  impeachment  proceedings,  after  he  had  almost 
eliminated  himself  by  his  foolish  actions,  the  Stevens 
faction  proceeded  to  work  its  will  upon  the  South  in  such 


292 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


a  manner  as  “to  secure  permanent  ascendency  to  the 
party  of  the  union.” 

Cotton  was  still  king  in  the  South.  Prices  were  still 
phenomenally  high,  although  four  years  of  war  had 
brought  about  a  great  increase  of  cotton-growing  in  India. 
In  the  twelve  months  after  the  close  of  the  war  the  value 
of  cotton  exports  reached  $200, 000, 000. 1  Here  was  a 
prize  worth  grabbing,  and  the  hungry  “Reconstruction¬ 
ists”  did  not  overlook  it.  During  the  war  the  Confed¬ 
erate  government  had  contracted  for  some  cotton,  hoping 
to  smuggle  it  through  the  blockade.  All  so  contracted 
for  was  declared  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of  the  United 
States  treasury.  How  that  confiscation  was  carried  out 
is  thus  described  by  Professor  Walter  L.  Fleming,  editor 
of  the  “Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction”:  — 
“The  territory  of  the  former  states  was  invaded  by 
swarms  of  treasury  agents,  or  those  who  pretended  to  be, 
searching  for  confiscable  property.  No  distinction  ap¬ 
pears  to  have  been  made  by  them  between  property 
legally  subject  to  confiscation  and  property  that  was  not. 
These  agents  often  united  with  native  thieves  and  plun¬ 
dered  the  country  of  the  little  that  was  left  in  the  way  of 
supplies,  cotton,  tobacco,  corn,  etc.”  2 
We  learn  of  one  agent  in  a  small  town  in  Mississippi 
who  cleared  $80,000  in  one  month  “confiscating  cotton.” 

The  great  instrument  of  class  rule,  exploitation,  ex¬ 
propriation,  and  accumulation  is  always  the  state.  Here 
rests  the  power  of  taxation  and  of  conferring  special 
privileges.  This  was  the  next  instrument  grasped  and 
used  by  the  Reconstructionists  in  plundering  the  South. 

1  “Cambridge  Modern  History,”  Vol.  VII,  p.  697. 

2  “  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  I,  p.  4. 


RECONSTRUCTION 


293 


Four  means  were  effective  in  this  capture  of  the  power  of 
the  states:  military  force,  negro  suffrage,  the  Freed- 
men’s  Bureau,  and  widespread  secret  conspiratory  or¬ 
ganizations,  like  the  Loyal  League. 

The  national  troops  in  the  South  were  the  pliant  tools 
of  the  politicians.  They  intimidated  voters,  protected 
ballot-box  stuffers,  or  assisted  in  the  stuffing,  and  when 
these  methods  failed  to  obtain  a  majority  suitable  to  the 
political  camp  followers,  regularly  elected  officials  were 
thrown  out  that  defeated  candidates  might  take  their 
place.1  An  extensive  state  militia,  composed  of  black 
and  white  “ Radical”  Republicans,  was  later  added  to  the 
national  troops.  Ninety-six  thousand  such  “ soldiers’’ 
were  supported  by  the  Reconstruction  government  of 
South  Carolina  at  one  time.  Their  only  duty  was  to 
draw  money  and  supplies  from  the  state  treasury  and 
see  that  the  elections  went  for  the  proper  Republican 
candidates.2 

The  trump  card  of  the  Reconstructionists  was  negro 
suffrage.  This  was  advocated  as  a  benevolent  measure 
for  the  protection  of  the  negro,  and  was  accompanied  by 
acts  disfranchising  nearly  the  whole  white  population  in 
the  South.  Had  freedom  and  the  vote  been  achieved  by 
the  negro,  they  would  have  been  powerful  defensive  and 
offensive  weapons.  But  they  were  thrust  into  his  hands 
as  tools  with  which  to  do  the  work  of  his  industrial 
and  political  exploiters.  Like  the  hoe  with  which  he 
“ chopped  cotton,”  they  were  but  instruments  with 
which  to  bring  profit  to  his  masters. 

1  “  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  148-156, 
tells  how  this  was  done  in  New  Orleans. 

2  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  p.  79. 


294 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Lincoln  had  favored  an  educational  test,  and  also, 
apparently,  some  proof  of  individual  initiative,  as  a  condi¬ 
tion  of  suffrage.1  It  should  be  unnecessary  to  say  that 
I  do  not  raise  the  question  of  the  “ rightness”  or  “wrong¬ 
ness”  of  universal  negro  suffrage,  but  am  only  discussing 
the  forces  which  led  to  its  being  conferred  at  this  time 
and  the  results  which  flowed  from  it.  Several  Northern 
states,  controlled  by  the  Republican  party,  refused  the 
negro  the  ballot  by  referendum  vote  during  the  very 
years  when  that  party  was  philanthropically  thrusting 
that  same  ballot  into  the  hands  of  the  negro  in  the  South.2 

A  possible  explanation  of  this  action  may  be  found  in  the 

♦ 

greater  average  intelligence  and  individual  initiative  of 
the  Northern  negro. 

The  immediate  excuse  for  forcing  suffrage  upon  the 
negro  without  any  request  for  it  being  preferred  by  him, 
and  indeed  for  much  of  the  hypocritical  “protective” 
legislation,  was  found  in  the  “black  codes”  and  “va¬ 
grancy  laws”  enacted  by  some  of  the  Southern  states  im¬ 
mediately  after  the  war.3  These  laws  sought  to  introduce 
a  sort  of  modified  serfdom  for  the  negro.  They  were 
much  like  those  enacted  by  capitalist  nations  to  compel 
the  natives  of  tropical  colonies  to  work.4  In  some  cases, 
with  a  shrewd  cunning,  they  were  copied  almost  verba¬ 
tim  from  the  “vagrancy  laws”  of  Northern  states,  with 

1  Letter  to  Gov.  Hahn,  Nicolay  and  Hay,  “Complete  Works,”  Vol.  II, 
p.  496. 

2  Hilary  H.  Herbert,  “  Reconstruction  at  Washington,”  in  “Noted  Men 
of  the  South,”  p.  13. 

3  J.  G.  Blaine,  “Twenty  Years  of  Congress,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  93-104; 
Lalor’s  “Encyclopedia  of  Political  and  Social  Science,”  article  on  “  Recon¬ 
struction.” 

4  Paul  S.  Reinsch,  “  Colonial  Administration,”  Chap.  IX. 


RECONSTRUCTION 


295 


the  exception  that  instead  of  leaving  the  competitive 
struggle  to  decide  to  whom  the  law  should  apply,  they 
described  the  persons  aimed  at  by  the  color  of  their  skin. 
The  same  laws,  with  slight  change,  have  been  reenacted 
in  most  Southern  states  in  recent  years,  along  with  meas¬ 
ures  disfranchising  the  negro,  and  no  protest  has  been 
raised  from  Republican  sources. 

There  was  no  question  of  the  pitiable  predicament  of 
the  negro  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Cut  off  from  his  former 
master  and  unable  to  adjust  himself  to  the  new  social  or¬ 
ganization  in  whose  coming  he  had  played  no  part,  the 
football  of  all  contending  factions,  with  a  death  rate  far 
higher  than  in  chattel  slavery  days,  one  is  not  surprised 
to  learn  that  many  of  them  longed  for  the  “good  old 
days/’ 1 

1  Albert  Phelps,  “New  Orleans  and  Reconstruction,,,  in  Atlantic 
Monthly,  Vol.  LXXXVII,  p.  125  :  “Under  the  institution  of  slavery  he  had 
developed  from  a  state  of  lowest  savagery  to  a  condition  of  partial  civiliza¬ 
tion  ;  but  this  development  had  been  due  to  wholly  abnormal  conditions, 
and  had  not  been  at  all  analogous  to  the  slow  process  and  weeding-out 
struggle  through  which  the  white  races  had  toiled  upwards  for  thousands 
of  years.  .  .  .  The  peculiar  institution  of  slavery,  however,  protected 
him,  not  only  from  this  competition,  but  also,  by  artificial  means,  from 
those  great  forces  of  Nature  which  inevitably  weed  out  the  weaker 
organisms,  and  which  operate  most  unrestrainedly  upon  the  ignorant 
savage.  For  the  first  time,  perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  human 
beings  had  been  bred  and  regulated  like  valuable  stock,  with  as  much 
care  as  is  placed  upon  the  best  horses  and  cattle.”  Montgomery  Ad¬ 
vertiser,  Aug.  13,  1863;  quoted  in  “  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruc¬ 
tion,”  Vol.  I,  p.  89:  “Nine  hundred  of  [the  negroes]  assembled  (near 
Mobile)  to  consider  their  condition,  their  rights  and  their  duties  under 
the  new  state  of  existence  upon  which  they  have  been  so  suddenly 
launched.  .  .  .  After  long  talk  and  careful  deliberation,  this  meeting 
resolved,  by  a  vote  of  700  to  200,  that  they  had  made  a  practical 
trial  for  three  months  of  their  freedom  which  the  war  had  bequeathed 
to  them ;  that  its  realities  were  far  from  being  so  flattering  as  their 


296  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


Those  who  had  forced  the  ballot  into  his  hands  now 
set  about  driving  and  deceiving  him  into  doing  their 
work.  One  of  the  means  to  this  end  was  the  Freedmen’s 
Bureau,  one  of  those  strange  combinations  of  cant  and 
crookedness,  philanthropy  and  profits,  piety  and  plunder, 
that  are  peculiar  to  capitalism. 

The  form  of  the  law  creating  the  Bureau  was  cast  in 
terms  of  philanthropy.  It  was  to  be  the  most  gigantic 
piece  of  paternalism  ever  attempted  by  any  government. 
The  most  intimate  details  of  the  lives  of  the  negroes 
were  confided  to  its  care.  Their  marriages,  their  busi¬ 
ness  transactions,  their  food,  homes,  clothing,  wages, 
education,  and  religion  were  to  be  supervised,  regulated, 
and  adjusted  by  the  agents  of  this  benevolent  insti¬ 
tution.1  The  War  Department  issued  supplies  for  the 
destitute,  and  vast  sums  from  various  sources  were  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Bureau.  That  suffering  was  re¬ 
lieved,  schools  established,  many  impositions  prevented, 
and  much  general  charitable  work  done  by  the  Freed¬ 
men’s  Bureau  is  indisputable.2  But  that  such  work 
was  its  main  object  after  the  first  year  of  its  existence 
none  but  the  most  prejudiced  of  its  friends  could  claim.3 

imagination  had  painted  it  .  .  .  and  finally  that  their  ‘last  state  was 
worse  than  their  first,’  and  it  was  their  deliberate  conclusion  that  their 
true  happiness  and  well-being  required  them  to  return  to  the  homes 
which  they  had  abandoned  in  the  moment  of  excitement,  and  go  to  work 
again  under  their  old  masters.”  Garner,  “  Reconstruction  in  Missis¬ 
sippi,”  p.  124:  “The  black  population  of  Mississippi  decreased 
56,146  between  i860  and  1866.  .  .  .  The  Southerners  said  they 
had  died  from  disease  and  starvation  resulting  from  their  sudden 
emancipation,  and  the  explanation  was  not  wholly  without  foundation.” 

1  “Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  319-340. 

2  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  “The  Soul  of  Black  Folk,”  chapter  on  “  Freed¬ 
men’s  Bureau”  ;  also  in  Atlantic  Monthly ,  Vol.  LXXXVII,  p.  360. 

3  Rhodes,  “History  of  United  States,”  Vol.  VI,  p.  185. 


RECONSTRUCTION 


297 


With  its  hundreds  of  agents  possessed  of  the  power  to 
grant  or  withhold  nearly  all  the  necessities,  comforts, 
and  luxuries  of  life  from  the  enfranchised  blacks,  it  con¬ 
stituted  a  perfect  machine  for  the  control  of  the  negro 
vote.1  It  was  so  used  to  the  extreme  limit  of  that  power. 
The  agents  elected  themselves  and  their  friends  to  office 
everywhere.2  Bureau  funds  were  used  directly  for 
political  corruption,  and  its  whole  far-reaching  influence 
was  always  openly  used  as  a  political  asset.3 

Interwoven  with  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  and  the 
military  organization  in  the  work  of  controlling  the 
negro  vote  were  several  secret  oath-bound  conspiratory 
organizations,  the  chief  of  which,  and  the  pattern  for  the 
rest,  was  the  Union  League.  The  Bureau  agents  were 
the  organizers  of  this  society.  “By  the  end  of  1867 
nearly  the  entire  black  population  was  brought  under 
its  influence.”  4  Solemn  oaths  bound  the  members  to 
vote  for  the  League  nominees.  All  the  methods  of 
secret  terrorism,  boycotts,  and  personal  violence  were 
used  to  enforce  this  political  obedience.5  The  organizers 
of  these  societies  did  not  overlook  any  opportunities 
for  petty  graft  in  the  form  of  dues  and  fees  that  could  be 
dragged  from  the  deluded  and  terrorized  blacks.6 

All  sorts  of  despicable  swindles  were  perpetrated  upon 

1  Hilary  Herbert,  “Why  the  Solid  South,”  p.  17.  2  Ibid.,  p.  18. 

3  Minority  Rept.  Howard  Investigation;  House  Rept.,  No.  121, 

41st  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  pp.  47-53. 

4  “Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  II,  p.  3. 

5  Ibid. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  20.  The  Freedmen’s  Bureau  commissioners  in  Florida 
organized  a  Lincoln  Brotherhood,  charging  “an  initiation  fee  of  from  one 
to  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  month.”  John  Wallace,  “Carpet- 
Bag  Rule  in  Florida,”  pp.  28-29. 


298  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


these  “ wards  of  the  nation”  by  their  grasping  guardians. 
The  story  that  Congress  had  voted  “forty  acres  and 
a  mule”  to  every  former  slave  was  almost  universally 
circulated  and  believed  among  the  negroes.  Red-white- 
and-blue  pegs  were  peddled  to  the  confiding  blacks,  with 
the  tale  that  any  land  marked  with  them  would  belong 
to  the  owner  of  the  pegs.1 

The  army  of  men  that  were  thus  marshaling  the 
negroes  for  the  Republican  party,  organizing,  voting, 
and  robbing  them,  was  made  up  in  part  of  Northern 
adventurers  (“carpet-baggers”)  and  so-called  Southern 
“Union  men”  (“scalawags”).  These  took  the  spoils 
of  office,  and  made  the  state  government  simply  means 
for  private  profit. 

It  is  probably  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  corruption 
of  these  Reconstruction  governments.  They  voted 
enormous  issues  of  bonds,  and  coolly  pocketed  the  money 
for  which  they  were  sold.  They  doubled,  quadrupled, 
and  multiplied  state  debts  twenty  fold,  and  this  without 
creating  a  single  public  improvement.2  They  raised 
the  taxes  until,  in  Mississippi,  20  per  cent  of  the  acreage 
was  sold  to  satisfy  the  tax  collector.3  Legislatures 
voted  fabulous  sums  for  “supplies”  for  their  members.4 

All  this  was  inflicted  upon  a  land  devastated  by  war 
and  in  most  desperate  need  of  every  resource  avail¬ 
able  for  the  establishment  of  the  most  elementary  social 
needs.  All  this  was  part  of  the  “original  accumulation” 

1  “  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  359-360. 

2  Daniel  H.  Chamberlain,  “  Reconstruction  in  South  Carolina,”  in 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol.  LXXXVII,  p.  477. 

3  Woodrow  Wilson,  “History  of  American  People,”  Vol.  V,  p.  47. 

4  “  Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  II,  pp.  59-72. 


RECONSTRUCTION 


299 


of  the  political  and  profit-making  power  of  the  present 
ruling  class. 

The  character  of  these  Reconstruction  governments 
is  sometimes  offered  as  a  proof  of  the  evils  of  negro  suf¬ 
frage.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  it  was  not  the 
black,  but  the  white,  man  who  maintained  these  govern¬ 
ments,  by  military  force,  conspiracy,  and  chicanery, 
and  that  the  white  alone  profited  from  them.1  At  the 
first  signs  of  independence  by  the  negro,  even  though 
that  independence  found  no  further  expression  than  a 
demand  for  a  share  of  the  plunder,2  interest  in  negro  suf¬ 
frage  by  the  Reconstructionists  waned.  When  some  of 
the  negroes  joined  with  a  remnant  of  decent  whites, 
the  Northern  philanthropists  withdrew  the  military 
support,  and  the  Reconstruction  governments  collapsed.3 

A  parenthetic  word  is  here  necessary  before  discussing 
the  further  reasons  for  the  fall  of  Reconstruction  govern¬ 
ments  and  policy.  It  would  be  as  foolish  to  follow  those 
Southern  historians  who  would  have  it  that  the  evils 
of  the  Reconstruction  governments  were  due  to  the 
immorality  and  vindictiveness  of  the  carpet-baggers 
and  politicians,  as  to  follow  those  Northern  writers  who 
make  of  the  whole  thing  a  benevolent  action  on  behalf 
of  the  negro,  alloyed  only  by  a  patriotic  ambition  to 
“save  the  Union.” 

Even  the  Congressional  leaders  were  but  instruments 
working  in  the  interest  of  newly  enthroned  capitalism, 
—  that  royal  heir  whose  birth  we  celebrated  in  the  War 
of  1812.  The  way  to  that  throne  led  through  four 

1  “Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  II,  p.  33. 

2  Wallace,  “Carpet-Bag  Rule  in  Florida,”  p.  105. 

3  “Documentary  History  of  Reconstruction,”  Vol.  II,  p.  35. 


3°° 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


bloody  years  of  Civil  War,  followed  by  three  times  as 
many  more  years  of  political  anarchy,  bribery,  oppres¬ 
sion,  conspiracy,  hypocrisy,  violent  disregard  of  law  and 
order,  and  the  creation  of  a  murderous  race  and  sectional 
hatred,  the  terrible  depths  of  which  we  have  not  yet 
sounded. 

These  words  imply  individual  moral  judgments  and 
responsibility.  This  is  necessary  until  a  new  industrial 
basis  of  society  shall  develop  a  vocabulary  based  on 
social  responsibility. 

Yet  it  would  be  false  to  assume  that  a  majority,  or  even 
the  leaders  of  the  dominant  faction  in  Congress,  were 
consciously  moved  by  a  desire  to  place  the  great  capital¬ 
ists  in  power.  Some  were  fanatically  sincere  abolition¬ 
ists,  earnestly  and  intensely  believing  that  they  were 
helping  the  negro.  Even  Thad  Stevens  seems  to  have 
been  to  some  extent  controlled  by  this  motive. 

They  were  “good”  men  when  judged  by  individual 
standards  of  morality  and  responsibility.  Looked  at 
from  a  little  broader  social  point  of  view,  the  vocabulary 
of  denunciation  and  abhorrence  seems  inadequate  when 
applied  to  their  actions.  Viewed  with  a  still  wider 
social  and  historical  vision,  they  are  seen  to  be  instru¬ 
ments  in  the  process  by  which  the  capitalist  class  at¬ 
tained  to  a  power  without  which  it  could  not  have 
worked  out  its  destiny  and  prepared  the  way  to  the 
better  things  that  are  still  possible. 

One  of  the  obstacles  to  the  carrying  out  of  the  Recon¬ 
struction  program  was  the  Supreme  Court.  This  body  was 
still  dominated  by  a  combination  of  small  capitalist  and 
chattel  slave  interests  and  ideas.  Because  that  power 
generally  safeguarded  the  interests  of  the  exploiting 


RECONSTRUCTION 


3°I 


class,  this  Court  had  been  permitted  to  retain  its  usurped 
power  to  declare  laws  unconstitutional.  It  now  became 
evident  that  this  power  would  be  used  to  nullify  some  of 
the  Reconstruction  legislation.  Another  “palace  revo¬ 
lution”  was  necessary. 

Accordingly  on  the  27th  of  March,  1868,  Congress 
passed  a  law  threatening  the  members  of  the  Supreme 
Court  with  fines  and  imprisonment  if  they  interfered 
with  the  carrying  out  of  such  legislation,  and  notifying 
that  body  that  this  legislation  was  not  subject  to  review 
as  to  its  constitutionality. 

The  Supreme  Court  at  once  recognized  the  right,  or 
rather  the  power  (which  in  class  government  is  the  same 
thing),  of  Congress  to  so  curb  the  judicial  department  of 
the  government,  and  dismissed  the  cases  which  were 
already  before  it.1 

The  Court  and  Congress  by  this  action  completely 
punctured  the  bubble  upon  which  the  autocratic  power 
of  the  Supreme  Court  rests,  and  demonstrated  that  the 
Supreme  Court  only  declares  laws  unconstitutional  when 
it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  ruling  class  to  permit  it  to 
exercise  that  power. 

Several  years  later,  when  powerful  class  interests  had 
no  further  use  for  such  legislation,  the  Court  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  receive  another  case  involving  these  laws,  and 
to  then  declare  them  unconstitutional  (October,  1875). 2 

By  the  time  the  negro  became  dissatisfied  with  the 
role  of  a  blind  and  dumb  political  tool,  the  great  capital- 

1  Rhodes,  “History  of  the  United  States,”  Vol.  VI,  p.  74;  Cong. 
Globe,  Jan.  13,  1868,  p.  476.  See  especially  the  speech  of  Frederick  T. 
Frelinghuysen,  Jan.  28,  1868. 

2  U.  S.  vs.  Reese,  92  U.  S.  Reports,  p.  214. 


3°2 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


ists  of  the  North  had  gained  such  complete  domination 
over  the  national  government  and  political  machines 
that  they  could  afford  to  relax  their  violent  rule  in  the 
South.  The  troops  were  withdrawn,  and  military  rule 
was  ended  by  Hayes  in  1876,  and  the  whole  Reconstruc¬ 
tion  society  crumbled  and  fell.  The  negroes  were  dis¬ 
franchised,  at  first  by  force  and  fraud,  and  then  later  by 
laws.  Meanwhile  their  erstwhile  Republican  defenders, 
who  had  once  thrust  that  ballot  into  their  hands  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet,  now  passed  by  on  the  other  side 
without  protest. 

These  interests  could  well  afford  to  ignore  the  South. 
They  had  found  a  richer  field  of  plunder.  A  saturnalia 
of  corruption  now  centered  around  the  national  govern¬ 
ment,  and  had  extended  to  state  and  municipal  admin¬ 
istrations.  It  was  not  simply  that  the  powers  of  taxa¬ 
tion  were  used  to  convert  the  national  treasury  into  a 
mammoth  widow’s  cruse,  from  which  the  privileged  few 
stole  almost  countless  sums.  The  national  government 
was  also  used  to  bestow  empires  of  land  and  piled  up 
millions  of  dollars  upon  railroad  corporations,  who  in 
turn  were  to  use  this  national  plunder  only  as  a  base 
for  still  further  and  greater  frauds.  In  the  stock  and 
bond  market  it  was  the  time  of  the  Tweed  Ring  in  New 
York  and  the  Credit  Mobilier  in  the  West.  To  merely 
enumerate  the  more  flagrant  frauds  of  this  time,  when  the 
fortunes  of  to-day  were  being  founded,  would  fill  the 
pages  of  a  larger  volume  than  this  one. 

Out  of  this  corruption  the  great  capitalist  class  drew 
the  funds  that  enabled  it  to  control  the  machinery  of 
politics.  The  horrors  of  Reconstruction  had  engendered 
a  sectional  hatred  so  fierce  as  to  render  impossible  any 


RECONSTRUCTION 


303 


political  combination  across  the  line  that  divided  the 
North  from  the  South.  The  Republican  party  had  made 
itself  the  object  of  a  peculiar  sort  of  patriotism,  based 
on  its  claim  to  have  saved  the  Union,  and  this  made 
possible  its  dominance  for  a  generation.1 

Great  and  complex  political  machines  had  been  built 
up  throughout  the  country,  resting  on  political  patron¬ 
age  and  illicit  favors  of  government,  which  controlled 
nominations  and  directed  elections.  In  the  South  a 
race  war  had  been  fostered  that  embittered  and  strength¬ 
ened  sectional  antagonism,  and  helped  to  maintain  the 
divisions  among  the  voters  so  valuable  to  a  ruling  class. 

By  such  methods  and  measures  did  the  present  ruling 
class  obtain  its  industrial  and  political  power. 

1  Ostrogorsky,  “Democracy  and  the  Origin  of  Political  Parties,” 
Vol.  II,  pp.  126-127. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


THE  TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM 

% 

Events  since  the  days  of  Reconstruction  are  still  too 
close  to  afford  that  perspective  view  necessary  to  isolate 
the  historically  important  from  the  sensationally  strik¬ 
ing.  Only  the  length  and  vision  of  years,  or  the  fore¬ 
sight  of  the  prophet,  can  determine  with  certainty  the 
events  and  the  forces  that  form  institutions  and  shape 
society,  and  thereby  constitute  the  stuff  of  which  his¬ 
tory  is  made. 

The  one  great  fact  of  these  years  has  been  the  stu¬ 
pendous  development  of  concentrated  capitalism.  This 
has  been  based  upon  a  continuous  rapid  transformation 
of  the  tools  with  which  society  does  its  work.  Invention 
has  crowded  fast  upon  invention.  The  whole  wonder¬ 
working  cabinet  of  the  electrician  has  been  unlocked  and 
its  contents  put  at  the  service  of  man.  Almost  every 
department  of  industry  has  been  revolutionized  over  and 
over  again  in  this  period,  and  every  revolution  brought 
greater  power  of  production. 

The  network  of  railroads  begun  at  the  close  of  the  war 
has  been  extended  until  it  has  covered  the  nation  as  with 
a  web,  whose  radiating  threads  of  steel  mark  the  indus¬ 
trial  centers.  To  the  building  of  these  railroads  an 
empire  of  land,  larger  than  the  territory  of  any  nation 
of  western  Europe  (about  five  times  as  large  as  the  state 

304 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  305 

of  Ohio)  has  been  given.  To  this  imperial  graft  the 
same  paternal  government  added  cash  subsidies  and 
guarantees  of  bonds  amounting  to  hundreds  of  millions 
more.  To  this  has  still  been  added  piled  up  millions  of 
bounties  and  bonuses  by  state  and  local  governments 
until  it  is  well  within  the  truth  to  say  that  such  funds, 
so  given,  have  been  sufficient  to  build  and  equip  every 
railroad  in  the  United  States  as  they  were  built  and 
equipped  in  the  early  eighties. 

These  roads  were  then  permitted  by  the  government 
to  become  instruments  of  private  profit. 

In  those  years  steel  displaced  iron,  owing  to  the  intro¬ 
duction  first  of  the  Bessemer  and  then  of  the  open 
hearth  process.  The  development  of  the  Lake  Superior 
ore  deposits,  the  cheapening  of  lake  transportation,  and 
the  shifting  of  the  market  for  iron  westward,  with  the 
growth  of  the  railway  systems  and  the  building  of  great 
cities,  caused  the  center  of  the  steel  trade  to  move  from 
Pittsburg  to  the  point  where  these  sources  of  demand 
and  supply  found  an  equilibrium.  This  point  now  seems 
to  be  located  near  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan. 

With  the  United  States  as  a  leading  factor  in  the  in¬ 
ternational  steel  trade  an  international  steel  trust  was 
inevitable. 

More  and  more  the  population  drifted  cityward.  As 
industry  after  industry  —  weaving,  shoemaking,  manu¬ 
facturing  of  clothing,  preparation  of  meat,  and  a  host  of 
others  —  left  the  rural  household  for  the  city  factory, 
the  workers  perforce  followed  their  work.  At  first 
the  rural  population  was  merely  outdistanced  in  rate  of 
growth.  But  the  census  of  1910  shows  a  positive  decline 
in  rural  population  in  the  predominant  agricultural  states. 


x 


306  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


This  growth  of  the  cities  was  accelerated  by  the  mighty 
flood  of  immigration.  There  was  a  succession  of  waves 
in  this  coming  of  the  peoples  of  other  countries.  Irish, 
Germans,  and  Scandinavians  formed  the  first  battalions. 
These,  like  those  that  had  been  coming  since  colonial 
days,  pressed  forward  to  the  frontier  and  were  swiftly 
amalgamated.  Later  came  a  series  of  waves  from  south¬ 
ern  and  eastern  Europe,  Italians,  the  mixture  of  nation¬ 
alities  from  within  Austrian  boundaries,  and  a  great  army 
of  exiles  from  the  Russian  ghettoes. 

When  these  reached  America,  the  frontier  was  gone. 
Free  land  was  no  more.  Agriculture,  instead  of  swiftly 
expanding,  was  already  declining.  This  new  army  of 
colonists  was  caught  up  in  the  internal  currents  of  pop¬ 
ulation  already  flowing  strongly  toward  the  cities,  and 
settled  in  ever  growing  colonies  that  resisted  amalgama¬ 
tion  and  endured  a  degree  of  exploitation  and  misery 
hitherto  unknown  in  America. 

Not  even  the  Homestead  Law,  creating  its  millions  of 
small  freeholders,  could  prevent  the  forces  of  concen¬ 
tration  producing  their  result.  The  census  of  1910 
again  shows  that  even  this  wholesale  apportionment  of 
land  by  the  government,  the  division  into  small  farms 
of  great  sections  of  railroad  holdings,  and  the  breaking 
up  of  the  Southern  plantation,  were  unable,  for  more  than 
a  generation,  to  check  the  effect  of  the  law  of  concen¬ 
tration  of  ownership  in  this,  the  slowest  of  all  industries 
to  respond  to  the  pressure  of  social  forces. 

From  the  beginning  the  farmer  of  the  Western  prairies 
formed  a  less  self-sufficient  industrial  unit  than  the  small 
pioneer  farmer  of  the  earlier  and  more  eastern  stage. 
The  Western  farmer  was  a  grower  of  staple  crops  for 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  307 

the  market.  Railroads,  elevators,  and  marketing  facili¬ 
ties  were  essential  instruments  in  the  production  of 
these  commodities.  These  instruments  became  the 
means  of  his  exploitation,  and  against  them  he  turned 
his  wrath.  In  three  great  uprisings, — the  “  Granger 
Movement”  of  the  late  seventies,  the  Populist  uprising 
of  some  ten  years  later,  then  the  Bryan  Democracy  of 
1896,  —  the  farmers,  aided  by  an  incoherent  mass  of  dis¬ 
contented  members  of  the  crumbling  small-capitalist 
class,  sought  to  capture  the  powers  of  government.  In 
each  of  these  uprisings  the  old  cry  of  the  debtor  class 
for  cheap  money  that  had  been  heard  ever  since  colonial 
days  was  brought  to  the  fore;  but  these  later  movements 
in  their  demands  for  governmental  action  in  fields  of 
industry  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  industrial 
changes  that  had  taken  place. 

Each  of  these  efforts  went  down  to  defeat.  The  class 
of  great  capitalists  was  in  control  of  nation,  state,  and 
municipalities,  and  of  the  executive,  legislative,  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  judicial  departments  of  each  and  all.  At  no 
other  time  in  this  country,  and  never  in  any  other  land, 
has  this  class  enjoyed  such  complete  domination.  Its 
ideas  and  ideals  made  and  modeled  social  institutions. 
It  created  a  society  after  its  own  image,  and  looked  upon 
its  work  in  bombastic  spread-eagleism  and  pronounced 
it  good.  As  the  final  triumph  of  capitalist  evolution, 
its  institutions  deserve  analysis. 

It  was  the  time  when  the  American  dollarocracy  of  beef, 
pills,  soap,  oil,  or  railroads  became  the  worldwide  syn¬ 
onym  for  the  parvenu  and  the  upstart.  In  literature 
it  produced  the  cheap,  wood-pulp,  sensational  daily, 
the  New  York  Ledger  type  of  magazine,  the  dime 


308  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


novel,  and  the  works  of  Mary  J.  Holmes,  Laura  Jean 
Libby,  and  “The  Duchess.”  In  industry  its  dominant 
figures  were  J.  Gould  and  Jim  Fiske.  In  politics  it 
evolved  the  “machine,”  the  ward  heeler,  and  the  political 
boss,  with  Tweed  as  the  finished  sample.  Its  religious 
life  found  expression  in  sensational  revivals  upon  the 
one  hand,  and  a  cheap  negative  atheism  upon  the  other. 
In  public  architecture  it  erected  the  hideous  piles  that 
now  disfigure  our  cities,  and  for  private  homes  it  added 
the  type  of  the  “  Queen  Anne  front ”  and  the  “Mary  Ann 
back.”  Its  triumphs  in  sculpture  were  the  bronze  and 
cast-iron  dogs  with  which  the  millionaire  decorated  his 
front  lawn.  It  moved  forward  to  the  music  of  Moody 
and  Sankey  hymns  and  ragtime  bands,  while  its  one  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  pictorial  art  of  the  world  was  the  chromo. 

There  was  a  steady  progress  in  industrial  concentra¬ 
tion,  but  there  are  certain  distinct  stages  worthy  of 
notice.  The  ten  years  following  the  Civil  War  might 
be  properly  designated  as  the  period  of  the  domination 
of  the  “large  industry,”  the  next  fifteen  years  as  that 
of  the  “great  industry,”  in  contrast  with  the  monopolistic 
stage  prevailing  since  that  date.  These  phrases  are 
indefinite,  and  do  not  fully  express  the  qualitative  as 
well  as  the  quantitative  differences  that  distinguish  these 
periods. 

Until  the  panic  of  1873,  the  dominant  industrial  unit 
(not  the  most  numerous,  but  the  one  of  which  the  ruling 
portion  of  industry  was  composed)  had  a  capitalization 
of  between  fifty  and  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The 
number  of  firms  was  increasing  quite  rapidly  in  all  but 
a  few  lines.  There  was  still  room  at  the  top,  and  a  host 
struggling  upward. 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  309 

When  in  1873  the  “mad  gallop”  of  industry  ended 
once  more  in  the  ditch  of  an  industrial  crisis,  with  Jay 
Cooke  and  Sons,  the  great  bankers  and  governmental 
agents  of  the  war  period,  at  the  bottom  of  the  mess,  it 
was  the  last  general  panic  of  capitalism.  Henceforth 
there  were  to  be  those  who  were  to  stand  outside  indus¬ 
trial  crises. 

In  1873  the  average  capitalization  of  the  firms  failing 
was  forty-four  thousand  dollars.  Twenty  years  later, 
with  the  average  industrial  unit  fully  three  times  as 
large,  there  came  another  crisis,  and  the  average  capital¬ 
ization  of  the  firms  failing  was  less  than  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  In  the  five  years  from  1893  to  1897  only  five 
firms,  with  a  capitalization  of  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  or  over,  failed. 

The  gods  of  our  industrial  world  were  now  safe  upon 
a  monopolistic  Olympus  above  the  storms  that  had  once 
overthrown  them.  A  few  years  later,  in  1908  and  1909, 
they  were  able  to  largely  direct  the  tempest,  and  even 
to  hurl  its  lightnings  at  those  who  had  presumed  to  dis¬ 
pute  their  divinity. 

The  panic  of  1873  marked  the  climax  and  collapse 
of  expanding  and  competitive  industry.  This  is  shown 
most  graphically  by  the  table  on  the  following  page. 

Forty  years  of  the  most  rapid  growth  in  production, 
the  doubling  of  the  population,  and  the  conquest  of  the 
international  markets  were  accompanied  with  a  decrease 
in  the  number  of  firms  in  the  leading  industries. 

Even  these  figures  give  but  little  idea  of  the  tremendous 
concentration  of  power  that  has  taken  place  within  the 
capitalist  class  itself.  The  periodical  press  is  now  filled 
with  descriptions  of  “inner  circles,”  “spheres  of  interest,” 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


and  all  the  multitude  of  methods  by  which  a  little  group 
completely  dominate  the  financial  and  industrial  life 
of  a  nation. 


NUMBER  OF  ESTABLISHMENTS 


1850 

i860 

1870 

1880. 

1890 

1900 

Agricultural  Implements  . 

1 333 

2116 

2076 

1943 

910 

715 

Carpets  and  Rugs  .  .  . 

116 

213 

215 

195 

173 

1 33 

Cotton  Goods  .... 

1094 

1091 

956 

1005 

905 

1055 

Glass. . 

94 

112 

201 

211 

294 

355 

Hosiery  and  Knit  Goods  . 

85 

197 

248 

359 

796 

921 

Iron  and  Steel  .... 

468 

542 

726 

699 

699 

668 

Leather  . 

6686 

5188 

7569 

2628 

1787 

1306 

Paper  and  Wood  Pulp  .  . 

443 

555 

677 

742 

649 

763 

Shipbuilding . 

953 

675 

694 

2188 

1006 

1116 

Silk  and  Silk  Goods  .  . 

67 

i39 

86 

382 

472 

483 

Slaughter’d  &  M’t  P’kg.  . 

185 

259 

768 

872 

1367 

ii34 

Woolen  Goods  .... 

1559 

1260 

2891 

1990 

1311 

1035 

Malt  Liquors . 

43i 

1269 

1972 

2191 

1248 

1509 

Totals . 

13,514 

13,616 

19,349 

18405 

11,617 

n,i93 

The  period  between  the  panics  of  1873  and  1894  was 
still  fiercely  competitive,  but  it  was  the  beginning  of  the 
competition  of  cannibalistic  absorption,  not  for  the 
conquest  of  new  fields.  It  was  the  war  to  determine 
who  should  survive  and  dominate  within  the  national 
market.  When  all  industries,  including  railroads,  were 
in  a  tooth  and  claw  fight  for  survival,  some  rather  start¬ 
ling  weapons  were  discovered  and  brought  into  play. 
These  were  the  palmy  days  of  rebates,  secret  rates,  and 
the  various  devices  that  gave  rise  to  a  whole  system  of 
repressive  legislation  after  they  had  accomplished  their 
purpose  and  were  of  no  value  to  the  ruling  powers. 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  31 1 

After  the  panic  of  1894,  the  industrial  battle  entered 
into  another  phase.  The  field  was  now  filled;  the  num¬ 
ber  of  really  effective  competitors  in  each  industry  was 
so  small  that  the  imminence  of  possible  destruction  and 
deglutition  became  evident  to  all.  So  the  profit  seekers 
decided  to  hunt  in  packs  instead  of  as  individuals,  and 
the  trust  appeared  as  a  dominant  figure  of  industry. 
The  creation  and  filling  to  repletion  of  the  national 
market  brought  about  a  situation  similar  to  that  exist¬ 
ing  in  the  South  before  the  war.  There  was  a  demand 
for  expansion.  The  Spanish  American  War,  the  in¬ 
vasion  of  China,  the  Panama  Canal,  the  ransacking  of 
the  dark  corners  of  the  earth  for  trade  opportunities, 
followed. 

The  century-long  march  across  the  continent  was 
ended.  The  frontier  of  unoccupied  land  was  no  more. 
With  the  birth  of  the  factory  system  at  the  close  of  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  American  society  turned  its  face  in¬ 
ward.  Now  having  conquered  the  continent  and  arisen 
to  another  stage  of  development,  the  curve  of  the  as¬ 
cending  spiral  swung  once  more  outside  of  national 
boundaries  and  became  involved  in  the  sweep  of  inter¬ 
national  forces.  That  this  movement  was  that  of  a 
spiral  rather  than  of  a  pendulum  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  this  second  entry  into  international  politics  was  with 
a  wholly  different  attitude  than  that  which  had  been  left 
behind  when  American  capitalism  broke  loose  from 
Europe. 

In  these  earlier  days  American  society  was  but  a  play¬ 
thing  of  forces  outside  its  own  boundaries,  owing  its 
existence  as  a  nation  as  much  to  conflicts  and  jealousies 
between  other  nations  as  to  its  own  power  of  assertion. 


312  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 

Now  it  returned  to  become  one  of  the  most  power¬ 
ful  factors  in  the  struggle  for  worldwide  commercial 
domination. 

The  Rise  of  Labor 

When  the  multitude  of  workers  were  released  from 
military  service,  and  returned  to  industrial  life,  they  were 
confronted  with  a  transformation  that  had  been  wrought 
while  they  fought.  The  individual  employer  had  largely 
given  way  to  the  corporation.  Great  masses  of  workers 
were  selling  their  labor  to  a  common  master.  The  rail¬ 
roads  especially  were  creating  and  demanding  a  body 
of  fluid  labor  power  drawn  hither  and  thither  in  search 
of  employment. 

The  Civil  War  had  abolished  the  system  by  which 
the  master  hunted  down  the  slave.  Those  who  had 
fought  that  war  returned  home  to  find  a  society,  one  of 
whose  new  and  most  striking  features  was  a  body  of 
workers  hunting  for  masters. 

These  new  conditions  affecting  men  so  many  of  whom 
were  familiar  with  the  effectiveness  of  military  discipline 
could  not  but  produce  an  organized  labor  movement. 
Many  of  the  powerful  “International”  unions  of  to-day 
were  born  in  the  decade  following  the  surrender  at 
Appomattox. 

These  first  unions  were  soon  drawn  together  in  the 
National  Labor  Union,  that  held  its  first  convention 
in  September,  1866.1 

After  a  couple  of  years  of  growth  this  party  was 
weakened  by  being  drawn  into  a  “Labor  Reform  Party,” 

1  “Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial  Society,”  Vol.  I, 
p.  227. 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  313 

which  was  seeking  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  small 
capitalist  and  the  working  class,  without  any  very  clear 
understanding  of  the  interests  of  either. 

The  “hard  times ”  of  1873,  therefore,  found  the  work¬ 
ing  class  almost  completely  unorganized.  The  first 
move  of  the  employers,  affected  by  the  crisis,  was  to 
reduce  wages.  The  unorganized  workers  could  offer 
no  effective  resistance,  and  the  return  for  labor  was 
forced  lower  and  lower  until  in  1876,  when  the  Centennial 
of  American  Independence  was  celebrated,  the  American 
workers  were  suffering  beneath  an  industrial  tyranny 
worse  than  any  imposed  by  English  kings,  and,  in  many 
ways,  worse  than  that  endured  by  the  negro  slaves  in  the 
South  before  the  Civil  War. 

So  helpless  were  the  workers  that  when,  in  1877,  the 
Pennsylvania  railroad  announced  a  still  further  reduc¬ 
tion  of  10  per  cent  in  the  already  less  than  living  wage, 
there  was  no  organized  body  to  resist.  While  there 
were  grumblings  and  threatenings  of  revolt,  the  day  set 
for  the  reduction  came  and  went  with  no  action  on  the 
part  of  the  workers.  Another  day  came  and  went,  and 
the  crew  of  a  train  running  into  Martinsburg,  West 
Virginia,  left  their  posts  as  they  drew  into  the  division 
end  and  walked  out,  declaring  it  to  be  no  worse  to  starve 
idle  than  to  starve  working.  Then  one  of  those  strange 
waves  that  seizes  those  on  the  verge  of  desperation  swept 
across  the  country.  The  spirit  of  revolt  leaped  along 
the  telegraph  wires  from  city  to  city,  until  from  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Atlantic  the  wheels  of  industry  were 
almost  paralyzed.  Then  Labor  learned  one  more  reason 
why  great  capitalists  wish  to  control  a  powerful,  unified 
national  government.  For  the  first  time  in  American 


3*4 


SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


history  workers  in  uniform  shot  down  workers  in  the 
grimy  garments  of  toil  that  profits  might  grow  and  wage 
slaves  be  kept  in  submission. 

The  slaves  had  not  yet  learned  the  uselessness  of 
violent  resistance  to  organized  power,  and  for  a  time 
they  fought  back.  In  Pittsburg  they  momentarily 
overcame  some  companies  of  militiamen,  but  the  battle 
quickly  ended.  The  workers  were  shot  and  bayoneted 
and  clubbed  back  to  defeat  and  submission.  But  Labor 
is  born  of  the  earth,  and  when  crushed  to  earth  draws 
new  strength  and  new  weapons  from  its  very  defeat. 

In  1869  a  little  band  of  workers,  having  discovered 
that  open  organization  only  invited  the  vengeance  of  the 
new  form  of  outlawry,  —  the  blacklist,  —  met  at  Phil¬ 
adelphia,  and  under  the  cover  of  secrecy,  formed  a  so¬ 
ciety  whose  very  name  was  never  written,  but  was  indi¬ 
cated  by  five  stars  whenever  it  was  necessary  to  refer  to  it 
with  pen  or  type.  This  society  grew  slowly,  but  steadily, 
until  the  strike  of  1877,  but  it  was  not  large  enough  at 
that  time  to  play  any  important  part  in  that  struggle. 
The  strike  and  its  momentary  defeat  so  suddenly  and 
dramatically  impressed  the  need  of  organization  upon 
the  workers  that  vast  numbers  flocked  to  this  new  organi¬ 
zation.  This  sudden  influx  of  members  rendered  the 
extreme  secrecy  of  earlier  years  both  impossible  and 
unnecessary,  and  the  mystical  five  stars  were  discarded 
and  replaced  by  the  words  “  Knights  of  Labor.” 

At  this  time  the  spirit  of  the  American  labor  move¬ 
ment  was  as  thoroughly  filled  with  the  great  revolution¬ 
ary  tendency  of  the  times  as  that  of  any  country  in  the 
world.  The  pioneers  in  its  organization  were  largely  Ger¬ 
man  refugees  of  1848  and  the  succeeding  years.  Many 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  315 


had  been  connected  with  the  International  Working¬ 
men’s  Association  (the  “Old  International”  founded  by 
Marx).  The  whole  ritual,  literature,  and  spirit  of  the 
“Knights  of  Labor”  was  permeated  with  vague  social¬ 
ism.  This  spirit  now  found  expression  in  the  eight- 
hour  crusade  that  swept  the  laboring  masses  of  the  coun¬ 
try  with  a  sort  of  religious  enthusiasm.  This  movement, 
like  the  “Knights  of  Labor,”  had  started  shortly  after 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  and  had  remained  dormant 
until  about  1880.  Then  it  gathered  momentum  until 
by  1885  ^  had  become  nation-wide  and  taken  on  more 
and  more  the  character  of  a  religious  crusade. 

In  some  way  the  impression  became  general  that  the 
first  of  May,  1886,  had  been  fixed  upon  as  the  day  of  the 
millennial  dawn  of  the  eight-hour  heaven  on  earth.  No 
organization  of  any  importance  fixed  this  date.  The 
“Knights  of  Labor,”  whose  members  had  grown  so 
rapidly  that  its  general  officers  were  refusing  to  charter 
new  locals,  lest  the  organization  become  unmanageable, 
especially  disavowed  this  date  as  being  set  for  any 
action. 

Yet  the  movement  grew,  and  reached  such  proportions 
as  to  threaten  a  serious  reduction  in  the  share  that 
Capital  was  taking  of  Labor’s  product.  Something 
like  a  panic  seized  upon  the  ruling  class.  Men  elected 
to  office  by  laborers  were  deliberately  counted  out  in 
Chicago.  This  caused  some  of  the  leaders  of  labor  to 
lose  their  heads  and  talk  vaguely  of  violence.  Then 
some  one,  whether  fool,  fanatic,  or  police  spy,  we  shall 
probably  never  know,  threw  a  bomb  into  a  detachment 
of  police  who  were  breaking  up  a  meeting  on  Haymarket 
Square  in  Chicago  —  a  meeting  that  the  mayor  of  that 


316  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


city  but  an  hour  before  had  declared  to  be  wholly 
peaceable. 

Then  all  the  fiends  of  vengeance,  controlled  by  the 
powers  of  plutocracy,  broke  loose.  Few  would  deny 
to-day  that  evidence  was  manufactured  by  wholesale 
by  the  Chicago  police  and  newspapers,  or  that  even  class 
law  was  stretched  to  the  breaking  point  that  the  leaders 
of  labor  might  be  brought  to  the  scaffold.  They  were 
brought  to  the  scaffold,  and  the  exploiters  of  labor  re¬ 
joiced  that  resistance  to  exploitation  was  crushed.  There 
was  more  reason  for  rejoicing  than  ever  before.  The 
appeal  to  violence  and  anarchistic  individualism  set 
back  for  many  years  the  intelligent  defense  of  Labor’s 
interest.  The  American  labor  movement,  hitherto 
inspired  and  largely  dominated,  even  if  in  a  somewhat 
indefinite  manner,  by  the  spirit  of  intelligent  class  revolt, 
now  fell  largely  under  the  control  of  its  most  reactionary 
and  short-sighted  element. 

Organized  labor  in  the  United  States  became  separated 
from  all  political  action  or  social  philosophy  save  that 
of  expediency  and  opportunism,  and  the  road  was  thrown 
wide  for  corruption  and  confusion.  There  were  many 
causes  for  this,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  this  period  of 
isolation  and  partial  sterility  in  the  broader  fields  of 
action  would  have  come,  had  it  not  been  for  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  judicial  murder  and  popular  prejudice  created 
by  those  who  appealed  to  anarchy  and  condoned 
violence. 

But  no  power  on  earth  can  permanently  crush  Labor. 
Gradually  its  revolt  has  grown  conscious.  Gradually 
it  has  evolved  its  philosophy  in  common  with  those  of 
other  nations.  Slowly  at  first,  but  with  ever  increasing 


TRIUMPH  AND  DECADENCE  OF  CAPITALISM  317 

speed,  it  has  been  translating  its  economic  interests  into 
political  and  industrial  action. 

Like  the  commercial  and  plantation  interests  that 
brought  about  separation  from  Great  Britain  and  for¬ 
mulated  the  Constitution,  like  the  chattel  slave  owners 
that  controlled  the  government  and  molded  it  for  two 
generations,  like  the  capitalist  class  that  rode  into  power 
amid  the  blood  and  fraud  and  terror  of  civil  war  and 
Reconstruction,  the  working  class  has  become  in  its 
turn  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  social  progress, 
and  is  fighting  for  victory  with  a  certainty  of  success 
before  it. 

Every  class  that  has  controlled  the  powers  of  govern¬ 
ment  has  used  these  powers  to  create  a  society  after  its 
own  image.  The  workers  will  do  the  same.  While 
history  may  appear  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  future, 
it  is  impossible  to  draw  the  lines  of  social  forces  through 
all  the  perspective  of  the  past  and  then  stop  them  short 
at  the  present. 

The  same  forces  that  have  operated  in  the  past  will 
continue  in  the  future.  New  and  more  effective  machines 
will  be  invented  and  hitched  to  more  powerful  and  yet 
undiscovered  sources  of  energy.  Concentration  and 
ownership  of  these  instruments  and  forces  will  proceed 
while  they  remain  private  property.  Labor  will  grow 
farther  and  farther  away  from  the  possibility  of  owner¬ 
ship  of  those  things  to  which  the  lives  of  laborers  are 
attached. 

Out  of  these  facts  the  workers  of  the  world  in  pursuit 
of  their  class  interests  have  evolved  a  line  of  action  that 
leads  to  organization  for  the  attainment  of  political 
power.  Labor,  like  the  merchant  class,  chattel  slave 


318  SOCIAL  FORCES  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY 


owners,  and  capitalists,  is  fighting  for  political  power.  It 
will  use  that  political  power  to  obtain  control  of  the 
instruments  essential  to  the  lives  of  the  workers.  That 
ownership  cannot  be  individual.  Industry  cannot  be 
disintegrated  back  to  the  stage  of  individual  ownership. 
It  must  be  still  further  integrated  into  common  owner¬ 
ship  by  a  democratically  controlled  government  of  the 
workers. 

Labor  is  certain  of  victory  in  this  last  struggle.  All 
other  classes  have  gained  power  only  as  they  have  per¬ 
suaded,  bribed,  or  terrorized  workers  into  fighting  or 
voting  for  them.  Now  that  the  working  class  is  fight¬ 
ing  its  own  battles,  there  is  no  possibility  of  defeat. 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Willis  J.,  38. 

Abolitionism,  218-219. 

Adams,  Henry,  104. 

Adams,  Herbert  B.,  65. 

Adams,  John,  61,  218. 

Adams,  Samuel,  73-74,  92. 

Agricultural  machinery,  248,  278. 

Agriculture,  49-51 ;  at  formation  of 
the  Union,  102  ;  mother  of  industry, 
121 ;  on  frontier,  136-137  ;  on  eve  of 
Civil  War,  248;  during  Civil  War, 
278-280. 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  120. 

Alvord,  H.  E.,  103. 

Ames,  Fisher,  88. 

Anarchists,  Chicago,  315-316. 

Annapolis  convention,  94. 

Arnold,  S.  G.,  91. 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  159. 

Austrian  Succession,  War  of,  57. 

Babcock,  K.  C.,  146, 157. 

Back-country,  struggle  with  coast,  46, 
53 ,  56;  opposition  to  constitution, 
98. 

Bacon’s  Rebellion,  47-49. 

Bagnall,  W.  R.,  37. 

Baker,  Kames,  234. 

Baltimore,  102. 

Bank  of  United  States,  first,  161 ;  sec¬ 
ond,  162-163,  205-208;  and  Daniel 
Webster,  205. 

Bankers  and  Civil  War,  280. 

Bankruptcy,  167. 

Bassett,  J.  S.,  112,  124,  230. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  160,  165,  172,  203, 
204,  206. 

Berkeley,  Governor,  47. 

Bishop,  Leander  J.,  88,  96,  122,  159, 
195- 

Blaine,  James  G.,  294. 

Bogart,  Ernst  L.,  195,  223,  246,  247. 


Bolles,  Albert  S.,  35,  37,  238,  239,  245, 
246,  247,  276,  277,  280,  282. 

Boston,  76,  102,  179. 

Boston  Tea  Party,  63-64. 

Brisbane,  Albert,  214,  255. 

Brown,  John,  260. 

Brown,  William  G.,  222,  230,  237,  239, 
268. 

Bruce,  Phillip  A.,  46. 

Bryant,  W.  C.,  256. 

Burr,  Aaron,  125. 

Byllesby,  L.,  188. 

Cabet,  Etienne,  214. 

Cairns,  W.  B.,  169. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  157,  162,  202,  226. 
California,  discovery  of  gold  in,  253. 
Cambridge  Modern  History,  10. 
Campbell,  18. 

Capitalist  class,  rise  of,  254-255. 
Capitalist  society,  characteristics  of, 
307-308. 

Carey,  Matthew,  148,  154,  156. 
Carlton,  Frank  T.,  177. 

Cattle  in  New  England  colonies,  35. 
Cavaliers,  45-46. 

Chadwick,  Frank  E.,  226. 

Chamberlain,  Daniel  H.,  298. 
Chamberlain,  Mellen,  70. 

Channing,  E.,  214. 

Channing,  William  E.,  169. 

Charity,  beginnings  of,  166. 

Charleston,  102. 

Chattel  slavery,  atavism  in  America, 
268-269 ;  concentration  of  ownership 
in,  224;  inferior  in  productive  power 
to  wage  system,  228-230;  industrial 
effects  of,  232 ;  movement  to  South, 
233-234 ;  demand  for  more  territory, 
236;  security  for  social  peace,  225. 
Cheney,  Edward  P.,  4,  5. 

Chevalier,  Michael,  174,  178. 


320 


INDEX 


Chicago,  1 91;  grain  shipments  from, 
249- 

Child  labor  in  early  cotton  factories, 
172-173. 

Chittenden,  H.  M.,  205. 

Church  and  Merchants,  3. 

Cities  at  formation  of  Union,  101 ; 
growth  of  population,  250;  struggle 
for  market,  199-200. 

Civil  War,  corruption  during,  280-282 ; 
cotton  speculation  during,  281-282; 
effect  on  industry,  275-277 ;  financ¬ 
ing  of,  282 ;  patents  during,  277. 

Clay,  Henry,  153,  202,  212. 

Cobb,  Elkanah,  149. 

Cobb,  Thomas  R.,  226. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  1,  10,  11. 

Coman,  Katherine,  44,  246. 

Commerce,  in  1810,  130;  in  1846,  246; 
progress  of,  120. 

Commercial  interests  and  constitu¬ 
tion,  88. 

Committees  of  Correspondence,  73,  83. 

Commons,  John  R.,  256. 

Commonwealth,  English,  70. 

Communism,  primitive  in  colonies, 
31- 

Concentration  in  chattel  slave  owner¬ 
ship,  224. 

Concentration  in  industry,  309-310. 

Confederation,  Articles  of,  99. 

Constitution,  adoption  of,  97-98. 

Constitution  and  Bill  of  Rights,  98. 

Constitutional  convention  a  conspira- 
tory  body,  92-93 ;  secrecy  of,  95. 

Continental  Congress,  83,  84,  94-95. 

Continental  currency,  86. 

Corn,  importance  of,  137. 

Cornwallis,  surrender  of,  80. 

Corruption  during  Reconstruction, 
298. 

Cotton,  and  blockade,  272-273;  and 
negro  slavery,  192,  219-220;  in 
Reconstruction,  292;  trade  during 
Civil  War,  281-282. 

Cotton  gin,  123. 

Cotton,  Joseph  P.,  126. 

Cotton  mills,  122,  149. 

Courts  created  by  Federalists,  125- 
126. 

Coxe,  Tenche,  155. 

Crime  in  1820,  168. 


Crisis,  of  1819,  160-168;  of  1837,  199; 
of  1873,  309;  of  1894,  309;  of  1908, 

309. 

Crittenden  Resolution,  290. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  36,  47. 

Crusades,  6. 

Cumberland  Road,  158. 

Cunningham,  William,  8. 

Curtis,  Francis,  257. 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  255. 

Davis,  John  P.,  239,  240. 

Debow,  J.  D.,  225,  227,  231,  252,  253, 
266-267,  285. 

Debt,  imprisonment  for,  86-87,  176- 
Debt,  national,  m-115. 

Debtor  class  and  constitution,  89. 
Debts,  assumption  of  state,  112-115. 
Demands  of  early  labor  movement, 
183-186. 

Depew,  Chauncey  M.,  201. 

Dewey,  D.  R.,  118. 

Dexter,  Edwin  G.,  177,  187. 

Dickens,  Charles,  210. 

Diffenderfer,  Frank  R.,  17. 

Dodge,  104. 

Domestic  Animals,  102-104. 
Donaldson,  Thomas,  204,  208. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  191,  217. 

Doyle,  J.  A.,  31,  141. 

Draft  riots,  283. 

Drake,  Charles  D.,  137. 

Dred  Scott  decision,  258-259. 

DuBois,  W.  E.  D.,  296. 

Dutch  West  India  Co.,  50. 

Dwight,  Timothy,  251. 

East  India  Company,  63. 

Education,  demands  of  labor  movement 
concerning,  181-183. 

Education,  public,  177. 

Ellis,  George  E.,  72. 

Emancipation  of  negro,  274. 

Embargo,  145-146. 

Emerick,  C.  F.,  161. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  214,  256. 

Erie  canal,  158,  195-197,  251. 

Evans,  Oliver,  122,  171. 

Excise  tax,  117. 

Express,  beginning  of,  242-244. 

Factory  system,  beginning  of,  105, 147 ; 


INDEX 


321 


efforts  to  encourage,  148;  evolution 
of,  170;  in  the  West,  152. 

Factory  workers,  misery  of  early,  172- 
174. 

Farmers' ,  Mechanics'  and  Working¬ 
men's  Advocate,  182. 

Farrand,  M.,  96. 

Faux,  W.,  103. 

Fish  Western  Meat,  204. 

Fisher,  Ellwood,  264. 

Fisher,  S.  G.,  73. 

Fisheries,  25 ;  as  cause  of  Revolution, 
62-63 ;  after  Revolution,  86. 

Fiske,  John,  41,  42, 43,  45,  46,  50,  52, 53, 

83. 

Fitch,  John,  106. 

Fite,  Emerson  D.,  252,  276,  279. 
Fitzhugh,  George,  234. 

Fleming,  Walter  E.,  269,  292. 

Flick,  A.  C.,  72. 

Flint,  Timothy,  159,  161,  193,  194,  196. 
Ford,  Ebenezer,  181,  184. 

Ford,  H.  J.,  94. 

Forests,  influence  of,  25. 

Fourier,  Francois  C.  M.,  214. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  53,  57,  116. 
Freedman’s  Bureau,  296. 

Free  Enquirer,  182. 

Frelinghuysen,  Frederick  T.,  301. 
Fremont,  John  C.,  258. 

French  and  Indian  War,  57,  60,  66. 
French  Revolution,  15 1. 

Frontier,  influence  in  American  history, 
134-142 ;  and  Jackson,  209 ;  and 
laborers,  178;  meaning  of,  139. 
Fur-trade,  26,  49,  205. 

Gannett,  H.,  142. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  217. 

Geiser,  Karl  F.,  17. 

German  immigrants,  15-16. 

Gibbins,  H.  de,  160. 

Goode,  John  Paul,  21. 

Goodloe,  Daniel  R.,  232. 

Gordon,  Charles,  194. 

Gouge,  William  H.,  160,  163,  164,  168, 
206. 

Granger  movement,  307. 

Grant,  William,  200,  252. 

Great  Lakes,  commerce  on,  257;  re¬ 
gion  during  Civil  War,  279;  settle¬ 
ment  of,  249. 

Y 


Greeley,  Horace,  255. 

Greenback  movement,  287. 

Greene,  E.  B.,  44. 

Gregg,  William,  230. 

Hall,  Benjamin  F.,  257. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  61,  96,  98,  109- 
119. 

Hammond,  M.  B.,  223,  233. 

Hancock,  John,  61,  62,  63. 

Hanseatic  League,  8. 

Harrison,  William  H.,  212-213. 

Hart,  Albert  Bushnell,  219. 

Hay  market  riot,  315. 

Heath,  David,  17 1. 

Helmholt,  5. 

Helper,  Hinton  Rowan,  228-230. 
Herbert,  Hilary  H.,  294,  297. 

Hildreth,  Richard,  129. 

Hill,  Rowland,  244. 

Holmes,  Oliver  W.,  256. 

Homestead  Law,  306. 

Hosmer,  J.  K.,  73,  92. 

Howe,  Elias,  245,  276. 

Howe,  William,  76-79. 

Hulbert,  A.  B.,  200. 

Immigration,  250,  306. 

Imprisonment  for  debt,  176. 

Indians,  27-29,  53-54. 

Ingle,  Edward,  231,  235. 

International  capitalism,  311-312. 
Inventions,  2-3,  195,  245. 

Iron,  colonial,  37;  industry,  106,  305; 
inventions  in,  195 ;  changes  in,  245- 
246;  in  Civil  War,  277;  in  Confed¬ 
eracy,  270-271;  rails,  245;  ship¬ 
building,  246. 

Irving,  Washington,  90. 

Jacksonian  Democracy,  209-2 11. 

James  I  of  England,  43. 

Jay,  John,  124. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  113,  124,  133,  145, 
153* 

Johnson,  Andrew,  289. 

Johnson,  Emory  R.,  238. 

Johnson,  James  F.  W.,  234. 

Kennedy,  J.  H.,  277. 

Kentucky,  settlement  of,  152. 

Kettel,  Thomas  P.,  231,  233. 


322 


INDEX 


Kindergartens,  demanded  by  Labor, 
183. 

Knights  of  Labor,  314-3 15. 

Kuhns,  Oscar,  16. 

Labor,  final  triumph  certain,  317-318. 
Labor  movement,  results  of  early,  184- 
187. 

Labor  unions,  312-316. 

Lalor,  J.  J.,  294. 

Land  grants  to  Confederation,  84. 

Land  speculation,  58. 

Legislatures,  colonial,  68. 

Leisler,  Jacob,  53,  59. 

Levasseur,  E.,  276. 

Lewis  and  Clark  exploration,  159. 
Libby,  Orin  G.,  98. 

Library,  Congressional,  153. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  217,  261,  286,  289, 
294- 

Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  2,  42. 

Logan,  John  A.,  138. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  256. 

Louisburg,  capture  of,  57. 

Louisiana,  purchase  of,  128-129. 
Lowell,  Francis  C.,  149. 

Lowell,  W.  R.,  256. 

Luther,  Seth,  174. 

Macaulay,  Thomas  B.,  16. 

Macgregor,  John,  193,  194,  198. 
Madison  family,  46. 

Madison,  James,  94,  95,  98. 

Maize,  136-137. 

Man,  The,  180. 

Mann,  Horace,  187. 

Manufactures,  194-195 ;  and  Civil  War, 
275-277 ;  Hamilton’s  Report  on, 
115-116;  and  Revolution,  64;  at 
close  of  Revolution,  87 ;  in  the  South, 
230,  269. 

Marshall  family,  46. 

Marshall,  John,  126,  164. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  210. 

Marx,  Karl,  189,  255,  284. 

Mason  and  Dixon’s  Line,  55. 

Mason  family,  46. 

Massachusetts,  90;  education  in,  177; 

manufacturing  in,  37. 

McCarthy,  Charles,  200. 

McCormick,  Cyrus,  245. 

McCullough  vs.  Maryland,  164. 


McMaster,  John  Bach,  40,  86,  87,  90 
92,  129,  130,  131,  132,  133,  146,  148, 
152,  158, 162,  163,  165,  174, 182,  204, 
205,  207,  209. 

Meat-packing,  193. 

Mechanics'  Free  Press,  180,  182. 

Mercantile  domination  in  government, 
154- 

Mercantile  System  of  economics,  60, 
64. 

Merchant  class,  2,  4, 108. 

Michaux,  F.  A.,  137. 

Minot,  G.  R.,  91. 

Mississippi,  State,  condition  after  War, 
288. 

Mississippi  River,  124,  247,  252. 

Mob  methods  in  Revolution,  74. 

Monroe  family,  46. 

Moonshining,  117-118. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  13-14. 

Morse,  J.  D.,  94. 

Moseley,  Edward  A.,  201. 

Motley,  J.  L.,  256. 

Myers,  Gustavus,  187,  205,  206. 

Nail  industry,  106. 

Napoleon  I,  108,  144. 

National  Labor  Union,  312. 

Navigation  laws,  61. 

Negro,  condition  after  emancipation, 
295  ;  submissiveness,  274 ;  suffrage, 
293-294,  299 ;  swindling  during 

Reconstruction,  298. 

New  England,  33-40,  129, 146, 159. 

New  Orleans,  159. 

New  York  city,  101 ;  influence  of  Erie 
Canal,  200 ;  trade  unions  in,  179. 

Niles,  Henry,  163,  167. 

Niles'  Weekly  Register,  122,  132,  157, 
160, 166,  174;  founded,  149. 

Ogg,  Frederick  A.,  58. 

Ohio  River,  influence  in  settlement,  158. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  84-85,  128. 

Oriental  trade,  5. 

Ostrogorski,  M.,  125,  132,  168,  211, 
254- 

Owen,  Robert,  189. 

Owen,  Robert  Dale,  281. 

Pacific  railway,  239. 

Palatinate  Germans,  15-17,  51. 


INDEX 


323 


Paper  money,  54,  66. 

Parkinson,  137. 

Parkinson’s  Tour,  103. 

Patents,  149;  for  scythe,  37;  during 
Civil  War,  277. 

Pauperism  in  1819,  167. 

Peck,  Charles  H.,  204,  212,  219. 

Peck,  J.  N.,  193,  194. 

Penn,  William,  59. 

Pennsylvania,  early  education  system 
of,  182 ;  manufactures  in,  148. 

Philadelphia,  xoi ;  early  union  move¬ 
ment  in,  180. 

Phillips,  U.  B.,  145. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  217. 

Piedmont  Plateau,  influence  on  settle¬ 
ment,  45. 

Pike,  James  S.,  273. 

Pine  Tree  Shillings,  39. 

Pioneers,  various  stages,  135-136. 

Piracy,  in  New  York,  51-52. 

Pittsburg,  58,  195. 

Plantation  interest,  and  constitution, 
88-89;  War  of  1812,  145. 

Plantation  system,  origin  of,  43-44; 
changes  in,  223. ' 

Platforms  of  early  Labor  Party,  184- 
186. 

Political  machines,  210-211. 

Pollard,  Edward  A.,  217. 

Poor  whites,  227-230. 

Population  in  colonial  times,  56 ; 
movement  toward  cities,  305. 

Populists,  307. 

Portuguese  explorations,  9. 

Postal  system,  of  Confederacy,  271- 
272 ;  establishment  of,  57 ;  at  forma¬ 
tion  of  Union,  101 ;  service  of,  241- 
244. 

Property  qualifications  for  voting, 
175- 

Public  land,  and  crisis  of  1837,  208; 
Foote  resolution  on,  203 ;  grants  of, 
to  railroads,  239;  in  formation  of 
Union,  84. 

Rabbeno,  Ugo,  116. 

Railroads,  beginning  of,  197-199;  in 
Confederacy,  271 ;  commerce  on, 
247;  grants  to,  239,  304-305;  Pa¬ 
cific,  239;  progress  prior  to  Civil 
War,  238. 


Ranching  stage,  138;  in  Illinois,  194. 
Randolph  family,  46. 

Randolph,  John,  153. 

Rebels,  hereditary  pioneer,  140. 
Reconstruction,  285-303. 

Reinsch,  Paul  S.,  294. 

Religious  changes  in  New  England, 
168-169. 

Renaissance,  relation  to  discovery  of 
America,  2. 

Republican  Party,  255-258,  261. 
Revolution,  American,  boycott  in,  74; 
mob  violence  in,  74;  smuggling  as 
cause  of,  61-63. 

Revolution  of  1848  and  emigration, 
250. 

Rhode  Island,  91,  99. 

Rhodes,  James  Ford,  258,  270,  274, 
275,  279,  281,  296,  301. 

Rice  industry,  104. 

Ringwalt,  I.  L.,  32, 158,  197, 198. 
Ripley,  George,  214. 

Risson,  Paul,  3. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  136-137. 

Ropes,  John  C.,  265. 

Rotation  in  office,  2ro. 
Rum-molasses-slave  trade,  38-39. 

Salisbury,  J.  H.,  137. 

Salt  tariff  opposed  by  West,  204. 

Santa  Fe  Trail,  205. 

Sawmill,  first,  38. 

Schaper,  W.  A.,  222. 

Schouler,  J.,  65,  94,  117,  206,  262. 
Schulte,  Aloys,  5. 

Schurz,  Carl,  256. 

Schwab,  John  C.,  263,  271. 

Scotch -Irish,  18. 

Secession,  cause  of,  237;  and  Civil 
War,  216-217. 

Semple,  Ellen,  142,  193,  196. 

Sentinel,  The  Daily,  180. 

Shaler,  N.  S.,  137. 

Sharpless,  Isaac,  54. 

Shays’  Rebellion,  90-92. 

Simons,  May  Wood,  67. 

Simpson,  Stephen,  188. 

Skidmore,  Thomas,  188. 

Slater,  Samuel,  105. 

Slaves,  chattel,  55-56,  104;  and  cotton 
gin,  123;  and  Civil  War,  218;  con¬ 
ditions  of,  223 ;  foreign  trade  in,  234- 


324 


INDEX 


235 ;  price  of,  233 ;  and  tobacco,  42 ; 
and  wage-workers,  96. 

Slavery,  negro,  in  Illinois,  192. 

Slavery  of  colonial  whites,  18-19. 

Smith,  J.  Allen,  96. 

Smith,  William  H.,  104,  256. 

Smugglers  and  Revolution,  73. 

Smuggling  as  cause  of  the  Revolution, 
61-63. 

Socialists  and  Civil  War,  283-284. 

Soil,  effect  on  settlement,  23;  on  cot¬ 
ton  raising,  222. 

South,  industrial  inferiority,  265. 

Spargo,  John,  284. 

Stamp  Act,  68. 

Stan  wood,  Edwin,  122,  157. 

State  governments  and  Reconstruction, 
289-290. 

Steamboat,  first,  106;  in  Western 
waters,  159;  on  Great  Lakes,  197; 
on  ocean,  246. 

Steam  in  cotton  mills,  171. 

Stedman,  Charles,  62. 

Stevens,  Thaddeus,  290,  291,  300. 

Stickney,  137. 

Stimpson,  A.  L.,  243. 

Strikes,  313,  314,  315;  as  conspiracies, 

131- 

Sumner,  William  G.,  65. 

Supreme  Court  and  Dred  Scott  deci¬ 
sion,  258-259;  and  Reconstruction, 
300-302. 

Swank,  James  M.,  245. 

Swank,  M.  D.,  195. 

Sylvis,  James,  C.,  283. 

Sylvis,  William  H.,  283. 

Tammany,  125,  210. 

Tanner,  H.  S.,  199. 

Tariff,  109-110,  115-117,  149;  and 
chattel  slavery,  235-236;  labor 
argument  for,  256. 

Tea-tax  and  Revolution,  63-64. 

Telegraph,  230. 

Texas,  as  granary  of  Confederacy,  270, 
271. 

Textile  industries,  122. 

Thatcher,  Samuel,  169. 

Thoreau,  Henry  D.,  214. 

Thwaites,  R.  G.,  56. 

Tobacco,  41-43,  104. 

Tocqueville,  Alexander  De,  210. 


Tories  in  Revolution,  71-72. 
Transcendentalism,  214. 
Transportation,  in  colonies,  31;  at 
formation  of  Union,  100. 

Tribune,  New  York,  255-256. 
Trumbull,  Jonathan,  61. 

Turner,  Frederick  J.,  142, 152, 153, 164, 
165,  168,  202,  205. 

Tyler,  John,  213. 

Tyler,  M.  C.,  72. 

Unemployed  in  1819,  166. 

Union,  plans  for  colonial,  59. 

Unions,  first,  179-180. 

Utopian  communism,  214. 

Utrecht,  treaty  of,  56. 

\ 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  211. 

Virginia,  colonial,  41-49;  decline  of 
industry  in,  153;  dynasty,  fall  of, 
153 ;  House  of  Burgesses,  43. 

Von  Holst,  Herman  E.,  94,  129,  225, 
226,  235. 

Wages,  130-131 ;  in  1819,  173. 
Wageworkers  and  constitution,  89. 
Wampum,  35. 

War,  effect  on  manufactures,  147. 

War  of  1812,  143-147. 

Warden,  D.  B.,  148,  161. 

Washington  family,  46. 

Washington,  George,  58,  76,  100;  as 
land  speculator,  65. 

Watson,  Thomas,  65,  94,  153. 

Webster,  Daniel,  157,  202,  203;  and 
Bank,  205-206 ;  and  tariff,  168. 
Webster,  William  C.,  3,  88,  96,  120. 
Weeden,  W.  B.,  32,  34,  35,  36,37,39,4©. 
Wells,  David  A.,  275,  277. 

Wells,  David  H.,  61. 

West  opposes  Bank,  164. 

Western  immigration,  152. 

Weston,  George  M.,  227. 

Westphalia,  Peace  of,  15. 

Weydemeyer,  Joseph,  256. 

Whig  Party,  212. 

Whiskey  Rebellion,  118. 

White,  Horace,  165,  206. 

Whitney,  Eli,  123. 

Whittier,  J.  G.,  256. 

Williamson,  Captain,  103. 

Wilson,  Henry,  237. 


INDEX 


325 


Wilson,  Woodrow,  48 
237,  298. 

Winden,  Julius,  200. 
Winsor,  Justin,  65,  70, 
Woolen,  industry,  105 
War  on,  276. 


,  86,  129,  204, 


72,  96. 

;  effect  of  Civil 


Women,  labor  of,  in  early  cotton  mills, 
172-173. 

Workingmen's  Advocate,  The,  178, 
183. 

Workingmen’s  ticket,  181. 

Wright,  Carroll  D.,  171. 


The  following  pages  are  advertisements  of 
The  Macmillan  Standard  Library 
The  Macmillan  Fiction  Library 
The  Macmillan  Juvenile  Library 


THE  MACMILLAN  STANDARD  LIBRARY 


This  series  has  taken  its  place  as  one  of  the  most  important  popular- 
priced  editions.  The  “  Library  ”  includes  only  those  books  which 
have  been  put  to  the  test  of  public  opinion  and  have  not  been  found 
wanting,  —  books,  in  other  words,  which  have  come  to  be  regarded  as 
standards  in  the  fields  of  knowledge, —  literature,  religion,  biography, 
history,  politics,  art,  economics,  sports,  sociology,  and  belles  lettres. 
Together  they  make  the  most  complete  and  authoritative  works  on 
the  several  subjects. 

Each  volume,  cloth,  12mo,  50  cents  net;  postage,  10  cents  extra 


Addams  —  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets.  By  Jane 

Addams. 

“  Shows  such  sanity,  such  breadth  and  tolerance  of  mind,  and  such 
penetration  into  the  inner  meanings  of  outward  phenomena  as  to 
make  it  a  book  which  no  one  can  afford  to  miss.”  —  New  York  Times. 

Addams  —  A  New  Conscience  and  An  Ancient  Evil.  By  Jane 

Addams. 

“  A  clear,  sane,  and  frank  discussion  of  a  problem  in  civilized 
society  of  the  greatest  importance.” 

Bailey  —  The  Country  Life  Movement  in  the  United  States.  By 

L.  H.  Bailey. 

“  .  .  .  clearly  thought  out,  admirably  written,  and  always  stimu¬ 
lating  in  its  generalization  and  in  the  perspectives  it  opens.”  — 
Philadelphia  Press. 

Bailey  and  Hunn  —  The  Practical  Garden  Book.  By  L.  H.  Bailey 

and  C.  E.  Hunn. 

“  Presents  only  those  facts  that  have  been  proved  by  experience, 
and  which  are  most  capable  of  application  on  the  farm.”  —  Los 
Angeles  Express. 

Campbell  —  The  New  Theology.  By  R.  J.  Campbell. 

“  A  fine  contribution  to  the  better  thought  of  our  times  written  in 
the  spirit  of  the  Master.”  —  St.  Paul  Dispatch. 

Clark  —  The  Care  of  a  House.  By  T.  M.  Clark. 

“  If  the  average  man  knew  one-ninth  of  what  Mr.  Clark  tells  him 
in  this  book,  he  would  be  able  to  save  money  every  year  on  repairs, 
etc.”  —  Chicago  Tribune. 


3 


Conyngton —  How  to  Help:  A  Manual  of  Practical  Charity.  By 

Mary  Conyngton. 

“  An  exceedingly  comprehensive  work  with  chapters  on  the  home¬ 
less  man  and  woman,  care  of  needy  families,  and  the  discussions  of 
the  problems  of  child  labor.” 

Coolidge  —  The  United  States  as  a  World  Power.  By  Archibald 
Cary  Coolidge. 

“  A  work  of  real  distinction  .  .  .  which  moves  the  reader  to 
thought.” —  The  Nation. 

Croly  —  The  Promise  of  American  Life.  By  Herbert  Croly. 

“  The  most  profound  and  illuminating  study  of  our  national  conditions 
which  has  appeared  in  many  years.”  —  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Devine  —  Misery  and  Its  Causes.  By  Edward  T.  Devine. 

“  One  rarely  comes  across  a  book  so  rich  in  every  page,  yet  so 
sound,  so  logical,  and  thorough.”  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

Earle  —  Home  Life  in  Colonial  Days.  By  Alice  Morse  Earle. 

“  A  book  which  throws  new  light  on  our  early  history.” 

Ely  —  Evolution  of  Industrial  Society.  By  Richard  T.  Ely. 

“  The  benefit  of  competition  and  the  improvement  of  the  race, 
municipal  ownership,  and  concentration  of  wealth  are  treated  in  a 
sane,  helpful,  and  interesting  manner.” —  Philadelphia  Telegraph. 

Ely  —  Monopolies  and  Trusts.  By  Richard  T.  Ely. 

“  The  evils  of  monopoly  are  plainly  stated,  and  remedies  are  pro¬ 
posed.  This  book  should  be  a  help  to  every  man  in  active  business 
life.”  —  Baltimore  Sun. 

French  —  How  to  Grow  Vegetables.  By  Allen  French. 

“  Particularly  valuable  to  a  beginner  in  vegetable  gardening,  giving 
not  only  a  convenient  and  reliable  planting-table,  but  giving  particu¬ 
lar  attention  to  the  culture  of  the  vegetables.”  —  Suburban  Life. 

Goodyear  —  Renaissance  and  Modern  Art.  W.  H.  Goodyear. 

“  A  thorough  and  scholarly  interpretation  of  artistic  development.” 

Hapgood  —  Abraham  Lincoln :  The  Man  of  the  People.  ByN orman 
Hapgood. 

“  A  life  of  Lincoln  that  has  never  been  surpassed  in  vividness, 
compactness,  and  homelike  reality.”  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

Haultain  —  The  Mystery  of  Golf.  By  Arnold  Haultain. 

“  It  is  more  than  a  golf  book.  There  is  interwoven  with  it  a  play 
of  mild  philosophy  and  of  pointed  wit.”  —  Boston  Globe. 

4 


Hearn — Japan:  An  Attempt  at  Interpretation.  By  Lafcadio 

Hearn. 

“  A  thousand  books  have  been  written  about  Japan,  but  this  one 
is  one  of  the  rarely  precious  volumes  which  opens  the  door  to  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  wonderful  people  who  command  the 
attention  of  the  world  to-day.”  —  Boston  Herald. 

Hillis  —  The  Quest  of  Happiness.  By  Rev.  Newell  Dwight 
Hillis. 

“  Its  whole  tone  and  spirit  is  of  a  sane,  healthy  optimism.” —  Phila¬ 
delphia  Telegraph. 

Hillquit  —  Socialism  in  Theory  and  Practice.  By  Morris  Hillquit. 

“  An  interesting  historical  sketch  of  the  movement.”  —  Newark 

Evening  News. 

Hodges  —  Everyman’s  Religion.  By  George  Hodges. 

“  Religion  to-day  is  preeminently  ethical  and  social,  and  such  is 
the  religion  so  ably  and  attractively  set  forth  in  these  pages.”  — 
Boston  Herald. 

Horne  —  David  Livingstone.  By  Silvester  C.  Horne. 

The  centenary  edition  of  this  popular  work.  A  clear,  simple, 
narrative  biography  of  the  great  missionary,  explorer,  and  scientist. 

Hunter  —  Poverty.  By  Robert  Hunter. 

“  Mr.  Hunter’s  book  is  at  once  sympathetic  and  scientific.  He 
brings  to  the  task  a  store  of  practical  experience  in  settlement  work 
gathered  in  many  parts  of  the  country.”  —  Boston  Transcript. 

Hunter —  Socialists  at  Work.  By  Robert  Hunter. 

“  A  vivid,  running  characterization  of  the  foremost  personalities 
in  the  Socialist  movement  throughout  the  world.”  —  Review  of 
Reviews. 

Jefferson — The  Building  of  the  Church.  By  Charles  E.  Jefferson. 
“  A  book  that  should  be  read  by  every  minister.” 

King  —  The  Ethics  of  Jesus.  By  Henry  Churchill  King. 

“  I  know  no  other  study  of  the  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus  so  scholarly* 
so  careful,  clear,  and  compact  as  this.”  —  G.  H.  Palmer,  Harvard 
University. 

King  —  The  Laws  of  Friendship  —  Human  and  Divine.  By 

Henry  Churchill  King. 

“  This  book  is  full  of  sermon  themes  and  thought-inspiring  sen¬ 
tences  worthy  of  being  made  mottoes  for  conduct.”  —  Chicago 
Tribune. 


5 


King  —  Rational  Living.  By  Henry  Churchill  King. 

“  An  able  conspectus  of  modern  psychological  investigation, 
viewed  from  the  Christian  standpoint.”  —  Philadelphia  Public 
Ledger. 

London  —  The  War  of  the  Classes.  By  Jack  London. 

“  Mr.  London’s  book  is  thoroughly  interesting,  and  his  point  of 
view  is  very  different  from  that  of  the  closest  theorist.”  —  Springfield 
Republican. 

London  —  Revolution  and  Other  Essays.  By  Jack  London. 

“  Vigorous,  socialistic  essays,  animating  and  insistent.” 

Lyon  —  How  to  Keep  Bees  for  Profit.  By  Everett  D.  Lyon. 

“  A  book  which  gives  an  insight  into  the  life  history  of  the  bee 
family,  as  well  as  telling  the  novice  how  to  start  an  apiary  and  care 
for  it.”  —  Country  Life  in  America. 

McLennan  —  A  Manual  of  Practical  Farming.  By  John  McLennan. 

“  The  author  has  placed  before  the  reader  in  the  simplest  terms  a 
means  of  assistance  in  the  ordinary  problems  of  farming.”  — 
National  Nurseryman. 

Mabie  —  William  Shakespeare:  Poet,  Dramatist,  and  Man.  By 

Hamilton  W.  Mabie. 

“  It  is  rather  an  interpretation  than  a  record.” —  Chicago  Standard. 

Mahaffy  —  Rambles  and  Studies  in  Greece.  By  J.  P.  Mahaffy. 

“  To  the  intelligent  traveler  and  lover  of  Greece  this  volume  will 
prove  a  most  sympathetic  guide  and  companion.” 

Mathews  —  The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order.  By  Shailer 
Mathews. 

“  The  book  throughout  is  characterized  by  good  sense  and  restraint 
.  .  .  A  notable  book  and  one  that  every  Christian  may  read  with 
profit.” —  The  Living  Church. 

Mathews  —  The  Gospel  and  the  Modern  Man.  By  Shailer 
Mathews. 

“  A  succinct  statement  of  the  essentials  of  the  New  Testament.” 
—  Service. 

Nearing  —  Wages  in  the  United  States.  By  Scott  Nearing. 

“  The  book  is  valuable  for  anybody  interested  in  the  main  question 
of  the  day —  the  labor  question.” 

Patten  —  The  Social  Basis  of  Religion.  By  Simon  N.  Patten. 

“  A  work  of  substantial  value.”  —  Continent. 

6 


Peabody  —  The  Approach  to  the  Social  Question.  By  Francis 
Greenwood  Peabody. 

“  This  book  is  at  once  the  most  delightful,  persuasive,  and  saga¬ 
cious  contribution  to  the  subject.”  —  Louisville  Courier-J ournal. 

Pierce  —  The  Tariff  and  the  Trusts.  By  Franklin  Pierce. 

“  An  excellent  campaign  document  for  a  non-protectionist.”  — 
Independent. 

Rauschenbusch —  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis.  By  Walter 

Rauschenbusch. 

“  It  is  a  book  to  like,  to  learn  from,  and  to  be  charmed  with.”  — 
New  York  Times. 

Riis  —  The  Making  of  an  American.  By  Jacob  Riis. 

“  Its  romance  and  vivid  incident  make  it  as  varied  and  delightful 
as  any  romance.” —  Publisher's  Weekly. 

Riis  —  Theodore  Roosevelt,  the  Citizen.  By  Jacob  Riis. 

“  A  refreshing  and  stimulating  picture.”  —  New  York  Tribune. 

Ryan  —  A  Living  Wage;  Its  Ethical  and  Economic  Aspects.  By 
Rev.  J.  A.  Ryan. 

“  The  most  judicious  and  balanced  discussion  at  the  disposal  of  the 
general  reader.”  —  World  To-day. 

Scott  —  Increasing  Human  Efficiency  in  Business.  By  Walter 
Dill  Scott. 

“  An  important  contribution  to  the  literature  of  business  psy¬ 
chology.” —  The  American  Banker. 

St.  Maur  —  The  Earth’s  Bounty.  By  Kate  V.  St.  Maur. 

“  Practical  ideas  about  the  farm  and  garden.” 

St.  Maur  —  A  Self-supporting  Home.  By  Kate  V.  St.  Maur. 

“  Each  chapter  is  the  detailed  account  of  all  the  work  necessary 
for  one  month  —  in  the  vegetable  garden,  among  the  small  fruits, 
with  the  fowls,  guineas,  rabbits,  and  in  every  branch  of  husbandry 
to  be  met  with  on  the  small  farm.”  —  Louisville  Courier-J  ournal. 

Sherman  —  What  is  Shakespeare?  By  L.  A.  Sherman. 

“  Emphatically  a  work  without  which  the  library  of  the  Shake¬ 
speare  student  will  be  incomplete.”  —  Daily  Telegram. 

Sidgwick  —  Home  Life  in  Germany.  By  A.  Sid g wick. 

“  A  vivid  picture  of  social  life  and  customs  in  Germany  to-day.” 

Simons  —  Social  Forces  in  American  History.  By  A.  W.  Simons. 

“  A  forceful  interpretation  of  events  in  the  light  of  economics.” 

7 


Smith  —  The  Spirit  of  American  Government.  B  y  J.  Allen  Smith. 

“  Not  since  Bryce’s  ‘  American  Commonwealth  ’  has  a  book  been 
produced  which  deals  so  searchingly  with  American  political  in¬ 
stitutions  and  their  history.” —  New  York  Evening  Telegram. 

Spargo —  Socialism.  By  John  Spargo. 

“  One  of  the  ablest  expositions  of  Socialism  that  has  ever  been 
written.”  —  New  York  Evening  Call. 

Tarbell  —  History  of  Greek  Art.  By  T.  B.  Tarbell. 

“  A  sympathetic  and  understanding  conception  of  the  golden  age 
of  art.” 

Trask  —  In  the  Vanguard.  By  Katrina  Trask. 

“  Katrina  Trask  has  written  a  book —  in  many  respects  a  won¬ 
derful  book  —  a  story  that  should  take  its  place  among  the  classics.” 
—  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle. 

Valentine  -  How  to  Keep  Hens  for  Profit.  By  C.  S.  Valentine. 

“  Beginners  and  seasoned  poultrymen  will  find  in  it  much  of 
value.”  —  Chicago  Tribune. 

Van  Dyke  —  The  Gospel  for  a  World  of  Sin.  By  Henry  Van 
Dyke. 

“  One  of  the  basic  books  of  true  Christian  thought  of  to-day  and  of 
all  times.”  —  Boston  Courier. 

Van  Dyke  —  The  Spirit  of  America.  By  Henry  Van  Dyke. 

“  Undoubtedly  the  most  notable  interpretation  in  years  of  the  real 
America.  It  compares  favorably  with  Bryce’s  ‘  American  Com¬ 
monwealth.’  ”  —  Philadelphia  Press. 

Veblen  —  The  Theory  of  the  Leisure  Class.  By  Thorstein  B. 
Veblen. 

“  The  most  valuable  recent  contribution  to  the  elucidation  of  this 
subject.”  —  London  Times. 

Vedder — Socialism  and  the  Ethics  of  Jesus.  By  Henry  C. 
Vedder. 

“  A  timely  discussion  of  a  popular  theme.” —  New  York  Post. 

Walling  —  Socialism  as  it  Is.  By  William  English  Walling. 

“ .  .  .  the  best  book  on  Socialism  by  any  American,  if  not  the  best 
book  on  Socialism  in  the  English  language.” — Boston  Herald. 

Wells —  New  Worlds  for  Old.  By  H.  G.  Wells. 

“  As  a  presentation  of  Socialistic  thought  as  it  is  working  to-day, 
this  is  the  most  judicious  and  balanced  discussion  at  the  disposal  of 
the  general  reader.”  —  World  To-day. 

8 


Weyl  —  The  New  Democracy.  By  Walter  E.  Weyl. 

“  The  best  and  most  comprehensive  survey  of  the  general  social 
and  political  status  and  prospects  that  has  been  published  of  late 
years.” 

White  —  The  Old  Order  Changeth.  By  William  Allen  White. 

“  The  present  status  of  society  in  America.  An  excellent  antidote 
to  the  pessimism  of  modern  writers  on  our  social  system.”  — 
Baltimore  Sun. 


AN  IMPORTANT  ADDITION  TO  THE  MACMILLAN 
FICTION  LIBRARY 

THE  WAVERLEY  NOVELS.  By  Sir  Walter  Scott 

THE  PORTRAIT  EDITION 


The  authentic  edition  of  Scott  revised  from  the  interleaved  set  of 
the  Waverley  Novels  in  which  Sir  Walter  Scott  noted  corrections 
and  improvements  almost  to  the  day  of  his  death.  The  present 
edition  has  been  collated  with  this  set,  and  many  inaccuracies,  some 
of  them  ludicrous,  corrected.  The  Portrait  Edition  is  printed  in 
clear,  easy  type  on  a  high  grade  of  paper,  each  volume  with  colored 
frontispiece,  making  it  by  far  the  best  cheap  edition  of  the  Waverley 
Novels  on  the  market. 


Each  volume ,  decorated  cloth ,  12 mo,  50  cents  per  volume 
Each  volume  with  colored  frontispiece 


Waverley 

Guy  Mannering 

The  Antiquary 

Rob  Roy 

Old  Mortality 

Montrose,  and  Black  Dwarf 

The  Heart  of  Midlothian 

The  Bride  of  Lammermoor 

IVANHOE 

The  Monastery 
The  Abbott 
Kenilworth 

The 


The  Fortunes  of  Nigel 
Peveril  of  the  Peak 
Quentin  Durward 
St.  Ronan’s  Well 
Redgauntlet 
The  Betrothed,  etc. 

The  Talisman 
Woodstock 

The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth 
Anne  of  Geierstein 
Count  Robert  of  Paris 
The  Surgeon’s  Daughter 
Pirate 


Complete  Sets,  twenty-five  volumes,  $12.50 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


THE  MACMILLAN  FICTION  LIBRARY 


A  new  and  important  series  of  some  of  the  best  popular  novels 
which  have  been  published  in  recent  years. 

These  successful  books  are  now  made  available  at  a  popular  price 
in  response  to  the  insistent  demand  for  cheaper  editions. 


Each  volume,  cloth,  12mo,  50  cents  net ;  postage,  10  cents  extra 


Allen  —  A  Kentucky  Cardinal.  By  James  Lane  Allen. 

“  A  narrative,  told  with  naive  simplicity,  of  how  a  man  who  was 
devoted  to  his  fruits  and  flowers  and  birds  came  to  fall  in  love  with  a 
fair  neighbor.”  —  New  York  Tribune. 

Allen  —  The  Reign  of  Law.  A  Tale  of  the  Kentucky  Hempfields. 

By  James  Lane  Allen. 

“  Mr.  Allen  has  style  as  original  and  almost  as  perfectly  finished  as 
Hawthorne’s.  .  .  .  And  rich  in  the  qualities  that  are  lacking  in  so 
many  novels  of  the  period.”  —  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 

Atherton  —  Patience  Sparhawk.  By  Gertrude  Atherton. 

“  One  of  the  most  interesting  works  of  the  foremost  American 
novelist.” 

Child —  Jim  Hands.  By  Richard  Washburn  Child. 

“  A  big,  simple,  leisurely  moving  chronicle  of  life.  Commands  the 
profoundest  respect  and  admiration.  Jim  is  a  real  man,  sound  and 
fine.”  —  Daily  News. 

Crawford  —  The  Heart  of  Rome.  By  Marion  Crawford. 

“  A  story  of  underground  mystery.” 

Crawford  —  Fair  Margaret:  A  Portrait.  By  Marion  Crawford. 

“  A  story  of  modern  life  in  Italy,  visualizing  the  country  and  its 
people,  and  warm  with  the  red  blood  of  romance  and  melodrama.”  — 
Boston  Transcript. 

Davis  —  A  Friend  of  Caesar.  By  William  Stearns  Davis. 

“  There  are  many  incidents  so  vivid,  so  brilliant,  that  they  fix  them¬ 
selves  in  the  memory.”  —  Nancy  Huston  Banks  in  The  Bookman. 

Drummond  —  The  Justice  of  the  King.  By  Hamilton  Drummond. 

“  Read  the  story  for  the  sake  of  the  living,  breathing  people,  the 
adventures,  but  most  for  the  sake  of  the  boy  who  served  love  and  the 
King.”  —  Chicago  Record-Herald. 

io 


Elizabeth  and  Her  German  Garden. 

“  It  is  full  of  nature  in  many  phases  —  of  breeze  and  sunshine,  of 
the  glory  of  the  land,  and  the  sheer  joy  of  living.”  —  New  York 
Times. 

Gale  —  Loves  of  Pelleas  and  Etarre.  By  Zona  Gale. 

“  .  .  .  full  of  fresh  feeling  and  grace  of  style,  a  draught  from  the 
fountain  of  youth.”  —  Outlook. 

Herrick  —  The  Common  Lot.  By  Robert  Herrick. 

“  A  story  of  present-day  life,  intensely  real  in  its  picture  of  a  young 
architect  whose  ideals  in  the  beginning  were,  at  their  highest,  aesthetic 
rather  than  spiritual.  It  is  an  unusual  novel  of  great  interest.” 

London  —  Adventure.  By  Jack  London. 

“  No  reader  of  Jack  London’s  stories  need  be  told  that  this  abounds 
with  romantic  and  dramatic  incident.” — Los  Angeles  Tribune. 

London  —  Burning  Daylight.  By  Jack  London. 

“  Jack  London  has  outdone  himself  in  ‘  Burning  Daylight/  ”  — 
The  Springfield  Union. 

Loti  —  Disenchanted.  By  Pierre  Loti. 

“  It  gives  a  more  graphic  picture  of  the  life  of  the  rich  Turkish 
women  of  to-day  than  anything  that  has  ever  been  written.”  — 
Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle. 

Lucas  —  Mr.  Ingleside.  By  E.  V.  Lucas. 

“  He  displays  himself  as  an  intellectual  and  amusing  observer  of 
life’s  foibles  with  a  hero  characterized  by  inimitable  kindness  and 
humor.”  —  The  Independent. 

Mason  —  The  Four  Feathers.  By  A.  E.  W.  Mason. 

“  ‘  The  Four  Feathers  ’  is  a  first-rate  story,  with  more  legitimate 
thrills  than  any  novel  we  have  read  in  a  long  time.”  —  New  York 
Press. 

Norris  —  Mother.  By  Kathleen  Norris. 

“  Worth  its  weight  in  gold.”  —  Catholic  Columbian. 

Oxenham  —  The  Long  Road.  By  John  Oxenham. 

“  ‘  The  Long  Road  ’  is  a  tragic,  heart-gripping  story  of  Russian 
political  and  social  conditions.” —  The  Craftsman. 

Pryor  —  The  Colonel’s  Story.  By  Mrs.  Roger  A.  Pryor. 

“  The  story  is  one  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  Old  South  figures 
largely;  adventure  and  romance  have  their  play  and  carry  the  plot 
to  a  satisfying  end.” 


ii 


* 

Remington  —  Ermine  of  the  Yellowstone.  By  John  Remington. 

“  A  very  original  and  remarkable  novel  wonderful  in  its  vigor  and 
freshness.” 

Roberts  —  Kings  in  Exile.  By  Charles  G.  D.  Roberts. 

“  The  author  catches  the  spirit  of  forest  and  sea  life,  and  the  reader 
comes  to  have  a  personal  love  and  knowledge  of  our  animal  friends.” 
—  Boston  Globe. 

Robins  —  The  Convert.  By  Elizabeth  Robins. 

“  ‘  The  Convert  ’  devotes  itself  to  the  exploitation  of  the  recent 
suffragist  movement  in  England.  It  is  a  book  not  easily  forgotten 
by  any  thoughtful  reader.”  —  Chicago  Evening  Post. 

Robins  —  A  Dark  Lantern.  By  Elizabeth  Robins. 

A  powerful  and  striking  novel,  English  in  scene,  which  takes  an 
essentially  modern  view  of  society  and  of  certain  dramatic  situations. 

Ward — The  History  of  David  Grieve.  By  Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward. 

“  A  perfect  picture  of  life,  remarkable  for  its  humor  and  extraor¬ 
dinary  success  at  character  analysis.” 


THE  MACMILLAN  JUVENILE  LIBRARY 


This  collection  of  juvenile  books  contains  works  of  standard  quality, 
on  a  variety  of  subjects  —  history,  biography,  fiction,  science,  and 
poetry  —  carefully  chosen  to  meet  the  needs  and  interests  of  both 
boys  and  girls. 

Each  volume,  cloth,  12mo,  50  cents  net;  postage,  10  cents  extra 


Altsheler  —  The  Horsemen  of  the  Plains.  By  Joseph  A.  Alt- 

SHELER. 

“  A  story  of  the  West,  of  Indians,  of  scouts,  trappers,  fur  traders, 
and,  in  short,  of  everything  that  is  dear  to  the  imagination  of  a  healthy 
American  boy.” —  New  York  Sun. 

Bacon  —  While  Caroline  Was  Growing.  By  Josephine  Daskam 
Bacon. 

“  Only  a  genuine  lover  of  children,  and  a  keenly  sympathetic 
observer  of  human  nature,  could  have  given  us  this  book.”  — 
Boston  Herald. 


12 


Carroll  —  Alice’s  Adventures,  and  Through  the  Looking  Glass.  By 

Lewis  Carroll. 

“  One  of  the  immortal  books  for  children.” 

Dix  —  A  Little  Captive  Lad.  By  Marie  Beulah  Dix. 

“  The  human  interest  is  strong,  and  children  are  sure  to  like  it.”  — 
Washington  Times. 

Greene  —  Pickett’s  Gap.  By  Homer  Greene. 

“  The  story  presents  a  picture  of  truth  and  honor  that  cannot  fail 
to  have  a  vivid  impression  upon  the  reader.”  —  Toledo  Blade. 

Lucas  —  Slowcoach.  By  E.  V.  Lucas. 

“  The  record  of  an  English  family’s  coaching  tour  in  a  great  old- 
fashioned  wagon.  A  charming  narrative,  as  quaint  and  original  as 
its  name.” —  Booknews  Monthly. 

Mabie  —  Book  of  Christmas.  By  H.  W.  Mabie. 

“  A  beautiful  collection  of  Christmas  verse  and  prose  in  which  all 
the  old  favorites  will  be  found  in  an  artistic  setting.”  —  The  St. 
Louis  Mirror. 

Major  —  The  Bears  of  Blue  River.  By  Charles  Major. 

“  An  exciting  story  with  all  the  thrills  the  title  implies.” 

Major  —  Uncle  Tom  Andy  Bill.  By  Charles  Major. 

“  A  stirring  story  full  of  bears,  Indians,  and  hidden  treasures.”  — 
Cleveland  Leader. 

Nesbit  —  The  Railway  Children.  By  E.  Nesbit. 

“  A  delightful  story  revealing  the  author’s  intimate  knowledge  of 
juvenile  ways.”  —  The  Nation. 

Whyte  —  The  Story  Book  Girls.  By  Christina  G.  Whyte. 

“  A  book  that  all  girls  will  read  with  delight  —  a  sweet,  wholesome 
story  of  girl  life.” 

Wright  —  Dream  Fox  Story  Book.  By  Mabel  Osgood  Wright. 

“  The  whole  book  is  delicious  with  its  wise  and  kindly  humor,  its 
just  perspective  of  the  true  value  of  things.” 

Wright  —  Aunt  Jimmy’s  Will.  By  Mabel  Osgood  Wright. 

“  Barbara  has  written  no  more  delightful  book  than  this.” 

i3 


Date  Due 

ArH  u  a 

MAH  a  S 

tffiQ  In  ,r 

'  -E-  r  0 

HA  r  ~7  '51, 

1 

M  '.J  .«  , 

v  ■  1  t-  i 

utbi4  6h 

FE3-1'65 

flpR-5'65 

■ 

u  i  II  y  i 

w 

% 

,4 

* 

<f> 

1-1  (l  /©  3 


.1(11860 

.54 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  HEIGHTS 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


Books  may  be  kept  for  two  weeks  and  may 
be  renewed  for  the  same  period,  unless  re¬ 
served. 

Two  cents  a  day  is  charged  for  each  book 
kept  overtime. 

If  you  cannot  find  what  you  want,  ask  the 
Librarian  who  will  be  glad  to  help  you. 

The  borrower  is  responsible  for  books  drawn 
on  his  card  and  for  all  fines  accruing  on  the 


same. 


